MADELEINE McCANN FUND - No wonder people donating didn't know their money would be paying for legal costs!!...

Madeleine’s fund is a non charitable not-for-profit company, which has been established to help find Madeleine McCann and to support her family and bring her abductors to justice. Any surplus funds will be used to help families and missing children in the United Kingdom, Portugal and elsewhere in similar circumstances. If there are surplus funds Madeleine’s Funds can be converted into a charity.

The Fund is following best practice governance procedures as set out in the Good Governance Code for the Voluntary and Community Sector. The directors of the company are Peter Hubner, Brian Kennedy, John McCann, Esther McVey, Doug Skehan and Philip Tomlinson. They have appropriate legal, business and charitable experience. An experienced Fund Administrator has been appointed to ensure the highest standards of transparency and accountability. This should enable the Directors to maintain an appropriate governance distance in the day-to-day operations of the Fund.

The Board and its individual Directors will ensure that the Fund is subject to required financial legal scrutiny. They will ensure that they receive reliable external advice and information, as the basis for making good decisions.

i THINK IT;S REALLY SNEAKY HOW THAT PEOPLE NEVER HEARD THIS.AS WHAT WE AND ALL THAT DONATED ; THOUGHT THE MONEY WOULD GO FOR PRIVATE DETECTIVES AND PAYING PEOIPLE FOR THE SEARCH; TO FIND THE LITTLE ANGEL;WHICH NOW I BELIEVE IS LONG DEAD..

Give it a break for f**ks sake their child is missing, i think money is the last of their worries.

Innocent until proven guilty..........no ones been charged yet.

It's just funded their extended holiday, and now that they've returned home empty-handed what happens to the money? I seriously doubt there's anyone privately still searching for the child.

It's up to you to check the small print before you make a 'donation' to anybody.

It all sounds a bit dodgy to me though....

My job is funding voluntary organisations, including charities, for a range of activities of benefit to the public. Before we even consider an organisation, we carefully scrutinise such things as their aims and objectives, accounts (if there are any) and their governance.

I had immediate concerns when this fund was initially set up and out of professioinal curiosity I visited the 'official' website specifically to check out the Fund's purpose etc.

I agree with the questioner that, before actually processing an on-line donation, the donor should have been automatically directed to the information about the aims of the fund.

My immediate concerns about the fund were the ambiguity of its stated purposes.

Since the considerable resources of both domestic and international law enforcement agencies continue to be used in order to establish the whereabouts of the child, dead or alive, I cannot see how the Fund can usefully make a contribution towards these costs.

That only leaves two other purposes. Leaving aside the personal expenses of the McCanns for a moment, the third and final purpose that " Any surplus funds will be used to help families and missing children in United Kingdom, Portugal and elsewhere in similar circumstances" assumes there will be balances remaining, but when would the Fund decide to start distributing these balances, especially if Madeleine is never found, and exactly how would they go about it?

Finally, the support of specific individuals has, thank Goodness, precluded this company from achieving Registered Charitable status...but do that many people know what this means?

My organisation would never dream of making funds available to any organisation with such woolly aims and objectives - or if we did, we would insist that they were revised. I don't think we would be inclined to give a grant to support the unspecified living costs of a group of people who are clearly not in dire social and financial need because we owe it to the source of our income (the public purse) to ensure money well-spent. Another thing, we would insist that relatives and close friends of the beneficiaries were removed from the governing Board of the Fund.

Given the strength of public feeling about this, were I advising the McCanns I would say the following: Wind up the Fund, NOW and donate what has been collected so far (all of it) to something like the National Missing Person's Helpline or another appropriate charity....which would have the added benefit of making you look good.

If they don't think they can stretch to legal costs from their own reserves, set up another fund specifically for that purpose...but be open and up-front about its aims and objectives and exactly what the money will be spent on. People should always make an informed choice about what they donate to and the onus is on the recipient to make absolutely sure that this is crystal clear before asking people to part with their cash.

Blondie : they are marchandising this case !!! Why would a parent profit with his child disapearence ?
And what are they funding ? Have they paid someone to find their child ? Or will be used to pay their way out of this mess ??

I haven't read all the answers but it seems to me that neshka is the only one that has shown any compassion for her fellow man.

Are we not a nation of givers and as such we rarely ever challenge where the monies are spent when we donate to comic relief, children in need and a host of other fund raising events. You would be foolish to think that all were Bona fida.

If you donated you ought to have armed yourself with the small print before making a donation. No good squealing over something you know very little about.

Are you aware that you are making this sound as though you know these parents are guilty and are acting like a baying mob.

EDIT: I remember when the news first broke about donating to this fund many of you on here were pleading to those of us who were reticent to do so calling us for all you were worth. How times have changed...like I said a baying mob!

My thoughts are, most people wouldn't think there wasn't going to be small print when it comes to saving the life of a child.

They are a disgrace and i would hope anyone who donated money will either ask for it back or insist it is only used for the search of Maddie.

What are they doing with all that money.Why the family and friends as directors of a company to deal with the funds.Why not a charity taking over all the money.Are they paying for a private investigator?Are they paying for any specialists to look for madeleine?Now they want another fund to the costs of Mccans defense.I will wait for the veredict with interess but not happy with the Madelene parents behaviour and I trust in Portuguese Police

Money makes the world go round and sometimes it can help to set criminals free... And I'm not saying this is the case...

I think they owe it to the public and all those who have donated to say how exactly the money has been used so far. Did they use it to pay for their trips to numerous countries...like Morocco? I do not think that trip was necessary or justified.

Hi, Thankfully I did not donate to this cause, I had very serious doubts all along about these McCanns... I can only say I feel peope should have investigated further before donating to these peope. The cause was suspect from Day 1.

If the McCanns go ahead and use these funds for their defence, I feel it is just what I would have expected from this unscrupulous pair. They are not poor, did not need to set up this fund. and as far as I can see the public have been very stupid in donating to such a cause. This fund has been used for al the hangers on of the ridiculously named 'team mccann' what have they done in all of this, the fund has just been used for the family and hangers on to have an extended holiday in portugal.
As far as i am concerned there could be even fraud charges to answer here if the McCanns are found to be charged. For goodness sake done confound their actions by allowing this large fund to be used for their defence. Let them sell their house or others of their wealthy family to chip in for this, but certainly not the fund. This money should not be in the hands of the family, it should be a registered charity and as far from the McCanns as possible.
Let justice be done, but not at the expense of the poor very misguided British public..... why oh why, are they all so ready to throw their money away with out checking first.,..... they meant well, but this money would be better used than defencing the likes of this pair.....

this makes me feel sick.

They should sell their house to pay for legal costs.

I for one was very aware what the money was to be used for, whether it was to help the family out financially or not, is neither here nor there, how did you expect them to stay on in a foreign country, or to travel round the world publicising the search, for their missing child without the fund. People like you need to put yourself in their shoes for a moment, ask yourself all the ifs and buts, I`m sure you wouldn`t cope without a fund either, oh and by the way I am a McCann Supporter in case you hadn`t noticed. Me and my mates donated £75. WELL SAID BLONDIE

I bet the McCanns did.

Well they obviously thought everything through didn't they?! I just wonder if they would have been happy to use the fund to pay for Murats legal team?

I've never seen this amount of money generated for anybody else's children, so why them? Especially when they seem to be so affluent. The house they were returning to looked about 3/4 times the size of anything I could afford.