Victims, families may get donations in July

Millions of dollars raised by the Broward Education Foundation for victims and families of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland will likely be distributed in July, foundation representatives said Thursday.

During a news conference in downtown Fort Lauderdale, the foundation named 18 members of a steering committee that will meet to establish a formula for how the money will be distributed and who will qualify to receive it.

The foundation’s campaign, formed hours after the Feb. 14 tragedy, has raised $4.06 million from more than 34,000 donors who gave through the crowdfunding website GoFundMe as well as directly to the foundation.

The steering committee is composed of well-known area civic and business leaders, headed by former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, now chairman of the board at Gunster Law Firm. Other members include former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth; tennis star Venus Williams; Tom Garfinkel, CEO of the Miami Dolphins; Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation; and Rita Case, wife of automobile dealer Rick

Case, identified by the foundation as a community advocate and philanthropist.

LeMieux pledged that the committee would continue to “raise as much money as possible” until the fundraising period is closed at the end of June. The committee will also make sure 100 percent of the money will go to the victims and their families, that it’s distributed fairly, and that the process to determine how it will be distributed would transparent and open to public input, he said.

The committee plans to begin discussing how to develop the distribution formula in a public town hall meeting at the beginning of April, he said.

Answering questions after the news conference, education foundation chair Christina Fischer said one reason the steering committee is so large is that members are expected to help raise additional money. She declined to identify a fundraising goal.

On a GoFundMe campaign organized to raise expenses for the planned March for our Lives gun control demonstration in Washington D.C. on March 24, Stoneman Douglas student Cameron Kasky said half of the money raised would be given to the Broward Education Foundation’s fund.

That campaign has so far raised $3.3 million from more than 40,800 donors.

Fischer reaffirmed the foundation’s intent to work closely throughout the fund distribution process with the National Center for Victims of Crime, which operates the National Compassion Fund.

In an interview last week, National Compassion Fund Director Jeff Dion shared formulas the fund helped develop for steering committees after the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando and the mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music festival last December.

Survivors of dead victims received the largest amounts, followed by victims who suffered injuries. Injured victims were compensated based on the number of days they were hospitalized.

The Pulse steering committee decided to also distribute money to 182 patrons who escaped the Pulse without physical injuries while the Las Vegas steering committee chose not to distribute funds to hundreds of concertgoers who were not physically injured.

After the news conference, Fischer said the foundation does not intend to require victims to prove specific needs to receive funds.

“It’s an unrestricted gift to victims to do whatever they want to do with it.”

Donations outside of the GoFundMe site include gifts from dozens of individuals and companies and were recently reported as “offline donations” on the campaign’s fundraising page.

They include: Ultimate Software ($500,000), Kabbage, Inc. ($100,000), American Airlines ($100,000), AT&T ($50,000), Merck & Co., Inc. Office of Corporate Responsibility ($50,000), COmmunities Foundation of Texas ($25,000), Discovery Education ($25,000), Chili’s/Brinker International ($23,810), Whole Foods Market ($23,160), Duffy’s Foundation ($18,000), Thomas E. Rogers Jr. Foundation, Inc. ($17,000), South Florida Muslim Foundation ($15,668), Coral Springs Charter School ($15,446), The JCPenney Foundation ($15,000), The SAP Charitable Fund ($15,000), Runner’s Depot Inc. ($12,000), Brightstar Credit Union ($10,000), Weston Nissan Volvo ($10,000), The Roush Family Fund ($10,000), Florida Blue ($10,000), Mercantil Bank ($10,000), Hecht 2008 Grantor Charitable Lead Annuity Trust ($10,000).