Eastern Iowa money now safe
February 26th, 2008It took some creative financing for one businessman to try for his share of the eastern Iowa tourism dollar. He actually made his attraction appear to be a charity drive by announcing that all children with cancer would be allowed in for free. He then started a direct mail campaign to the residents of all the larger cities in the area. This was accomplished with the help of a major player in the direct mail market in the area. Then with the help of four of his closest friends he set up a phone bank that targeted the wealthiest individuals in the area. They did their research well and had contributions coming in at a good rate when the floor fell out from underneath them. It seems that although they did good research on where to find the money they didn’t research what it takes to be a real nonprofit. Once the IRS found out about their illegal money raising operations they sent agents to the area to check it out. What the agents found was that not only was this not a true non profit but it was organized for the sole purpose of generating money and the charity end of the enterprise was never planned to be preformed.
