Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

Previous to my current role as blogger at Top School Fundraisers, I was working at a non-profit summer camp for boys. Like many summer camps it has a strong tradition and long history. In fact, I, myself, was a camper there for five years, before I became a staff member. In total, I was at the camp 24 years, from the time I was 10 years old until I was 34. I told people my mom just never came to pick me up.

So, in the summer of 2000, I was the associate director. One of my responsibilities was to raise money for the camp. There was a small, but respectable endowment, but like many places, money was tight and there were always more projects than funds.

One day, around mid-July, a young man walked into the camp office. He introduced himself as a former camper, a proud alumnus. I was not surprised, as many folks drop by the camp each week for this same purpose. Some were campers (or counselors) just a couple of summers previous, while some old timers remembered the early days of the camp in the 1930s.

This particular visitor claimed to have been a camper in the early 1990s, and I pegged him for around 25 years old- tops. He and I would have been at the camp at the same time, but I was having a hard time placing the name and face. He did mention a number of people who would have been present around that time, so I figured we just didn’t cross paths back then.

He asked if he could look around, and I had a couple of free minutes, so I offered to give him a tour. He remembered all the cabins, the mess hall, our camping trips, everything. Along the way, I asked him what he had been doing since he left camp.

He mentioned that he lived in the Detroit area and that he owned a software company. I was a bit surprised, as he seemed so young, but he said that when he was in college, he and a friend had developed a program that was useful in search engine technology. After that, things just kind of took off, he said. Now, remember, this was before the big “dot com bust”, so his story made sense at the time.

Then he put his hand on my elbow and stopped walking. We were alone. He said that the real reason for his visit was that he wanted to make a charitable contribution to the camp. He said that he had great memories and wanted to help us.

I nodded and thanked him very much. Then I asked him what he was thinking about giving. Normally, I wouldn’t be so blunt, but he was being forthright himself, so I figured, “what the heck?”

He looked me straight in the eye and told me $1 million. I almost fell down. As I tried to gain composure, he also said that he had four or five 15 passenger vans he wanted to get rid of, plus a couple dozen almost-new computers from his office building. “Could we use them?” he asked.

He went on to explain that he and his partner had made a lot of money very quickly and that his accountants were telling him he had to get rid of some. That made sense to me, and I was very happy to be the beneficiary of his taxable inconvenience.

Given that the donation was so significant, I thought I should get my boss involved. We walked back to the camp office, and I excused myself from my guest for a moment. I gave my boss the run-down, quickly had to administer CPR on him, and brought him out to meet our new benefactor.

The young man went on to tell my boss that this his donation was going to be a yearly arrangement. So, we could count on at least $1 million per year indefinitely. My boss said that would be acceptable. I literally reached down and pinched my own leg, because this certainly seemed like a dream.

We exchanged all the necessary contact information: home, work, cell, email, web address, etc. The donor said the vans would be delivered within the week and that his accountants would be in touch within 48 hours.

He smiled, shook our hands, said what a great place our camp was, and then he drove away.

My boss and I were on Cloud 9. This was BIG news. We took a few minutes to just let the reality of it all sink in. This would change the very nature of our community. We could offer new programs, maybe open a girls’ camp, make much needed physical improvements, and pay our valuable staff higher wages. We were like kids in the candy store.

In all, the young man’s visit to our camp lasted just shy of two hours. But in those two hours, he promised to change our lives.

After a while, I told my boss I was going to hop online and look at this guy’s company website.

I typed in the URL he gave me, but it came up as a 404 error. Thinking I made a typo, I tried it again. Still nothing. I did a search for the company name. Zero. Then, I searched his name. I think there was somebody by that name in Kansas City who was a vice president at an insurance agency, but it sure wasn’t our guy. I then called Information to try and search for his company in Detroit. They had no business listing by that name in the entire state of Michigan.

With each dead end, my heart sank deeper and deeper. When I finally realized he had perpetrated a hoax on us, I was devastated. Totally crushed. I couldn’t believe it.

He had told us he was staying at a friend’s cottage nearby the camp, but we hadn’t thought to get the address, so there was no way to physically trace him either.

For almost two hours, this person had come in our home and lied to us in a very personal way.

We never heard from him again. Not a call, not a visit, nothing. Besides my time and hopes, he never took anything from us. His goal must have simply been to build us up so high and then to crush us. I don’t know if I had even ever spoken to him in my life before that day. I can’t explain it.

I don’t know if there is any moral to this story. I don’t know if I was supposed to learn anything from this or not. Maybe to be more skeptical? Doubt people more? Stop trusting? Sad.

In the end, though, I just think this kid was a very troubled young man.

Anyway, that’s my fundraising horror story. Do you have any of your own? I’d love to hear them and share with our readers. Please write!

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