Don’t know if anyone else has see this but being a Chicago local, sucks to see the local franchise getting a negative spotlight. Anybody else worried about the potential impact this could have on other fan groups?
Former Windy City Ghostbusters member accused of lying on state paperwork to take control of charity
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I think it establishes an awful precedent that it’s not in the best interests of charitable/fundraising groups to have bank accounts that hold charitible funds. It’s alarming how easy it was for Zeimetz to co-opt the Windy City team’s bank account.
It would probably be best for groups to use established/official donate links on websites and at events to ensure that donations go straight to the charities.
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Oh for sure. I think sadly, the members of this group probably never thought a disgruntled member would clean them out.
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Our group here has specific Non Profit requirements and yearly audits of the financials. This is exactly why. Really is unfortunate but this a good reminder for all franchises to look at how groups operate these types of accounts and who has access to it.
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We are only a small group and therefore the monies we’ve ever raised is probably only in the hundreds figures rather than thousands, but we’ve never held money… everything has always gone direct.
On the rare occasions that we have collection tins we try as fast as possible to get them to a charity representative often the very same day. We don’t want to be holding money meant for charities and non-profit Organisations.
In the uk at least people are more than happy to scan QR codes and donate directly using their payment methods of choice. Sometimes we sell some products to help cover our costs of operating but that’s entirely separate from any money meant for good causes. There’s really no need to be a middle man anymore. If you’re that bothered about being able to shout from the rooftops “look how much we raised!” (as opposed to just quietly raising) then most of the donation platforms these days allow you to set up dedicated donation links in order to track it all.
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