Mom on the Run: Fundraisers and Fakers

Fundraising. The word itself is enough to make me crazy right now. There is a ton of work involved and so many causes out there that people who do have a few bucks to part with, can’t always decide whose cause deserves their hard-earned cash.

I recently ran my first marathon, PF Chang’s Rock N Roll Arizona in Phoenix, while raising $3,800 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society — and I’m at it again! I will be running the Chicago Marathon Oct. 10 with LLS’s Team in Training. I have committed to raising a minimum of $1,000.

I, like most people, have been impacted by cancer. I have no personal ties leukemia, lymphoma or any other blood cancer, but when I heard about TNT, I thought, “Why not?”

I had always wanted to run a marathon and figured I might as well raise some money for a great cause in exchange for coaching and support throughout my marathon journey.  

This blog is not being written in an attempt to encourage my readers to break out their checkbooks and help me along my way. It is, instead, to raise a few questions about the integrity and credibility of some fundraisers.

Last week I was assigned a story that, as somebody truly hoping to make a difference via fundraising, really got my blood boiling. An East Peoria woman told her friends she had breast cancer, helped them organize a fundraiser for her benefit and walked away with about $4,500. Turns out this woman did not have cancer.

The case, for which a hearing was held at the Tazewell County Courthouse July 13, ended with probation and restitution of about $900. If she abides by her probation, she will not see no jail time.

Now, as I call up area businesses, friends, family, and so on in an attempt to set up fundraisers and ask for donations, I worry that they may think I’m a fundraiser faker. I have documentation, a tax ID number and a signed commitment with TNT — which has my credit card number, so I’m not getting out of this — to let them know my fundraising is legit. I’m not going to use the money I raise to go on a shopping spree or pay off a credit card — though a fundraiser to pay off my debt is starting to sound like an excellent idea.

No, the money I raise is going to help find a cure for blood cancers and support patients and their families who have to deal with life-altering and all too often life-ending cancers.

The other thing that aggravates me so much about this story is that this woman has three children. An individual who posted a comment about the story on our website wrote, “The nicest thing about her is that she has three beautiful children who know right from wrong. Unfortunately, they’re learning that their mother is more wrong than right.”

I was happy to see this post, because as I wrote this story, I thought about the horrible example she has set for her kids.

Also as I wrote the story, I couldn’t help but think about the men, women and children who battle cancer everyday and what an unbelievable slap in the face this is to their fight.

If this woman was hurting so badly for money, perhaps she should have tried a loan. But then she would have had to pay the money back and be honest.

Holly Richrath is a reporter at Times-Newspapers. She shares the juggling act that is her life and her quest for sanity in her blog “Mom on the Run.”