Raising money for recipients that don't exist

Everyday I receive no less than 50 news stories emailed to donttellthedonor@gmail.com based on keywords I've set-up, such as: fundraising, donation, development office, charity giving, philanthropy, and nonprofit gossip.

All too often one of these stories is about thieves stealing a donation jar from the counter of a convenience store. Unfortunately, the thefts don't usually rise to the high standards of news we have here on this blog, which is why I loved Trent Stamp's take on one of these stories a couple weeks ago.

But even a cynical jerk like myself was shocked by this bastard who collected $2,000 by placing collection boxes for a patient who didn't exist in 27 California cities saying a family needed help after their son died from orthopedic bone cancer.

...then again, wasn't the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund accused of also raising funds for churches that may not have even existed? They may have done so without knowing it, but you can't say they weren't warned.