Money raised for charity and not handed over - how to tackle?

Emsworthy · 2 December 2015 at 11:46AM

Hi all,

An individual went out and fundraised in our charity's name way back in April this year. They advertised the fact they were fundraising for us on various sites on the internet. We are still to receive the money that was raised.

In communication back and forth, the individual has stated that they had some personal finances they needed to pay for, so they can't currently recover the money for the charity, so in all intents and purposes, they have spent the money given to them by members of the public to benefit our charity, on themselves. There has been no attempt to try and pay, or suggestions as to how they could repay.

We work hard to keep our charity going and obviously, having advertised the fundraising they had planned, there is the possibility of our name being brought into disrepute, which would ruin everything we have done.

What is the next step we should be taking?

molerat · 2 December 2015 at 3:24PM

Police. Simple case of fraud / theft.

Savvy_Sue · 3 December 2015 at 2:21AM

Not that it will necessarily help with the recovery, but did you know in advance that they were planning to use your name in their fundraising?

loopychriss · 27 December 2015 at 10:35PM

Absolutely go to the police. This is almost carbon copy of what happened to me in 2012. We reported it to the police and the fraudster was taken to Crown Court, found guilty and received a jail sentence of 26 months. We still have not received either the money or an apology.