Excerpt from article:
"In 2012 after the Aurora theater shooting, survivors of that event came to us at the National Center for Victims of Crime and said that they didn't like how their fund was being administered, and they asked us to set up a new fund for them," Jeff Dion, executive director of the National Compassion Fund, said.
The National Compassion Fund, or NCF, is a group founded after a gunman murdered 12 and injured 70 in the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting almost 10 years ago.
One of those victims was Micayla Medek. When donations did not reach families in need, her cousin was moved to action.
"The first $200,000 went to 10 area nonprofits, and we found out that they were a victim relief fund; [it] was not actually going to go directly to the victims," Anita Busch with Victims First said. "We had kids with brain injuries and no insurance, and we have 12 people to bury."
Busch works alongside the NCF. The foundation says its role is to make sure victims and survivors get direct assistance from every dollar donated.
"But nobody really is planning for donation management, and we know that this happens just about every time," Dion said.
The foundation has overseen collection efforts for 23 mass casualty events and helped disburse more than $100 million.
"So we had to get up off our knees in grief and fight so that the donations would actually get to the victims," Busch said.
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