Could Embarrassment Be The Reason To Kill A $17 Million Charity?

by Gary Snyder

An unknown person has donated $17 million since 2005 to help less fortunate people. He set up, through the Archdiocese of Detroit, the “Angel Fund”. This person’s generosity paid for necessities like rent, medicine and overdue utility bills for those who cannot afford such things.

Because of incompetence or sheer embarrassment the fund is ending April 30. The decision is just several weeks after the Angel Fund’s existence was publicly revealed because of alleged fraud by a Detroit priest, according to the Detroit Free Press. 

The donor’s decision had nothing to do with the alleged fraud, according to the Archdiocese. However, the publicity undermined the fund’s under-the-radar service could be one reason for the decision.

The fund’s end “cuts back seriously on what we can do,” Sister Jolene Van Handel, a pastoral minister at Detroit’s Nativity Catholic Church, said.

For over three years, a Detroit priest would fill out false applications for grants from the Angel Fund. The fraud involved a sum between $1,000 and $20,000, according to the charges.  After catching the perpetrators the donor was disappointed and the charity was frozen.

Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Charity Navigator, Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio (NPR), Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), “Betrayal”, (a movie), NBC (on Charity Fraud…TBD), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Marie Claire, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, Charity Navigator, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, Board Room Insider, USA Today Topics, Accountants News, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times, Portfolio Magazine, The Virgin Islands Daily News, NANKAI (China) BUSINESS REVIEW, National Religious Broadcasters newsletter, The Charity Governance Blog, American Chronicle, Palm Beach Post, Detroit Free Press, Oakland Press, Nonprofit World, Socially Responsible Business Forum, PNNOnline, Ohio Nonprofit Resources, Nonprofit Good Practice Guide, Nonprofit Startup Guide, Nonprofit Blog, National Coalition of Homeless Newsletter, Finance and Administration Roundtable Newsletter, MichiganNonprofit.com, CORP! Magazine, Crain’s Michigan Nonprofit, ncrp.org, PhilanTopic, Nashville Free Press, Nonprofit Law Blog, Seniors World Chronicle, Carnegie Reporter, Assoc. of Certified Fraud Examiners Examiner, msnbc.com, Worchester (MA) Telegram and Gazette, Carnegie Corporation of America, EO Tax Journal, Wikipedia: Non-profit Organizations; Parent: Wise Austin, Accountants News, Veterans Today, Answers.com, Far-roundtable, #Nonprofit Report, nonprofithelpnews, nonprofit news; National Enquirer, Northwest Herald, The HelpWise Daily, The #Nonprofit Report, Wikipedia (Nonprofit Organization), Answers.com, Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)