SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS WITH REGARD TO DONATIONS
When receiving a donation of money or resources it is important to determine if this is the type of assistance the Community Response Plan and the searching family requires. The following are some questions the Resources Coordinator should ask themselves when receiving donations:
Is anyone profiting from this donation?
In some circumstances, individuals will offer to fundraise for you, but keep a portion of the money raised.
Consider whether or not the organization or fundraiser is benefitting in any way from the situation.
Early decisions will need to be made about whether or not to accept this type of support.
It is completely acceptable to decide not to accept any fundraising help from outside sources that the committee and/or the searching family are not comfortable with.
What are the expectations in return?
In most circumstances, during a search for a missing child, people will want to donate money and resources with very few strings attached.
Be careful about accepting donations that come with expectations with regard to favours or benefits. Also be sure to understand whether the donor has any future expectations of repayment or acknowledgement of the donation.
You don’t know what the future holds and therefore cannot make any guarantees about the searching family’s ability to comply with requests.
Does this donation honour the child and respect the searching family and the investigation?
In some cases a donation or fundraising technique may make you feel uncomfortable.
You have the right to refuse any donations or offers to fundraise.
If you feel that someone’s efforts to fundraise do not appropriately honour and respect the child, the searching family and the investigation, you may want to consider issuing a public statement clarifying that you are not associated with this fundraising effort.
Consult with police or a reputable non-profit organization for guidance in this area.