Parents and family members of victims killed in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as well as several other mass murders in the United States, are calling on the federal government to establish a protocol for a “National Compassion Fund” so that funds donated in the wake of a national tragedy get to the people they are intended for.
Sixty-four family members connected to the school shootings in Sandy Hook, Columbine, Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University, Aurora and Oak Creek, as well as 9/11, are uniting in the hopes that a fund providing a centralized infrastructure be created on the federal level to guarantee that 100 percent of donations collected be distributed directly to the victims, according to a news release.
“The American public is incredibly giving when tragedy strikes,” the families said in a prepared statement released by spokesperson Caryn Kaufman. “They donate generously to provide relief to the victims’ families. Going back to Oklahoma City, we’ve seen families who have had to endure not only horrific loss but also the unimaginable task of wrestling with byzantine non-profit bureaucracies to access financial relief intended for them. It’s time to stop the madness. We cannot watch this happen, yet again, in Sandy Hook.”
Fifty family members from the tragedies that happened before the Sandy Hook school shooting asking that the “unspecified funds” non-profits raised in the wake of the Newtown tragedy be given directly to the Sandy Hook shooting victims and victims’ families.
According to the news release, some nonprofits have retained donations or redistribute it to causes that have little or nothing to do with the victims’ families or the donors’ intent.
Donations to the National Compassion Fund would be tax deductible to the donor, tax exempt to the victims and their families and would eliminate fraudulent funds , according to the news release.
