No Longer Donating To Covenant House - Mental Health Awareness Retreat

Due to lack of management and rejection, we will no longer be donating to the covenant house in Texas, USA. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused anyone. In order to be fully transparent with you guys, I will give a summary of what happened.

On August 19th, 2013 there was a post made by Mental Health Awareness Retreat explaining where the money goes. Here is that post: http://skittlesinthepit.blogspot.com/2013/08/where-does-money-go-mental-health.html. As you can see we made it very clear that this was not a fundraiser. We were using the money donated to Mental Health Awareness Retreat by people who loved the hunt/exhibit and instead of us keeping that money, which we explain in the link above that we can rightful do so, we decided to chose to donate it to covenant house, Texas, USA instead. We let you guys know where we chose that money to go because if you enjoyed the event and/or hunt but didn't agree with the shelter we chose to give the money to then you could simply not donate at all. We even offered you choices of donating to other shelters and other ways you could donate that is not monetarily. We even had a sign that read near our donations tip jars (which were recycle bins) "All donations go to covenant house in Texas, USA but feel free to donate to any shelter you wish in Rl"

On Wednesday, August 21,2013 I called covenant house, Texas, USA to find out how the transaction of the donation would be handled. I wanted to make sure of the process and have proof after the donation was made so that you guys could see our transparency. I even asked if I could make the donation under Mental Health Awareness Retreat to which I was told that I could indeed do. The lady I spoke to said to speak to the fund-raiser coordinator. I thought it odd since I just wanted to donate only but figured that perhaps I had to go about that route due to a larger sum of money being donated.

The fund-raiser coordinator had me fill out and return a form called Third Party Fundraiser- commitment form. She had told me this form was needed in order to keep track of those who make a donation. I returned the form via email but didn't hear back from her. I left various messages via phone and email to her and the donation coordinator who I had previously spoken to. Finally when I left an email saying that if this was how our donations would be handled without a follow up and proof then we would make our donation elsewhere, I heard back from them. The donation coordinator said she had contacted me via email twice but I have no such emails and the fund-raiser coordinator said she could not get back to me soon due to a death in her family and even invited me to their 30th anniversary.

After speaking to the fund-raiser coordinator and feeling bad for her death and the toll it must have had on her and handling the donation matter, I chose to give covenant house a second chance and still donate to them. I asked for a confirmation letter to be send to me, the same confirmation letter I had asked for several times and was never sent to me stating that we spoke in regards to the donation being made on Sept.15th. I also asked to be reassured that our donation would be handled appropriately and in a timely manner. The fund-raiser coordinator reassured me but failed to send out the confirmation letter.

This is when I finally called the headquarters in NYC to inform them about the situation and how the matter was being handled. I needed to know that the money donated was going to be accounted for. The lady in charge there told me she knew exactly what I needed, the confirmation letter, and told me how to go about making the donation. Within an hour I received an email from covenant house Texas that read "Good afternoon (my Rl last name here), 

I would like to start the email by saying "Thank You" from the staff and youth at Covenant House Texas for choosing us to be the recipients of the funds raised during your Mental Health Awareness Retreat. It is with the generosity of groups like yours that we at CHT have been able to help homeless and at-risk youth for thirty years. I can assure you that your donation and cooperation is greatly appreciated and look forward to working with you throughout this process. We welcome you to browse our new website to potentially answer any questions or to simply gain more information. 

If you need any assistance please feel free to call or email me. 

Thanks and have a wonderful day."

I thought all was great and was getting ready to post to you guys here this wonderful email so that you could see that we made the calls necessary to be able to donate this money. We wanted to show that the money collected via our event/hunt because people loved it, will not be pocketed by me but instead donated to a good cause. Unfortunately that will not happen with this shelter.

I received an email from covenant house Texas this morning saying "Good Morning (my Rl last name here), 

I hope this messages finds you well, We appreciate your consideration of thinking of Covenant House Texas for your fund-raiser, Unfortunately after viewing the information you provided we will have to decline and we ask that you will not use Covenant House Texas name,logo, or any information pertaining to our organization for the use of your fundraiser. Please feel free to email or call  me with any questions or concerns."

What happened between yesterday and today for them to change their minds? I know as much as you. I am clueless as to why an organization that can help save kids will reject a donation. Until now people had donated to Mental Health Awareness Retreat a total of $50 USA Dollars. According to covenant house donation page it only takes $.50 cents a day to shelter and give food to a child. That means we could have either saved 100 kids for a night or one child for 3 months thus far. 

I wrote this post prior on how wonderful covenant house was to me 10 years ago but I guess things have changed and I failed to research those new changes made.  http://skittlesinthepit.blogspot.com/2013/08/clearing-air-in-reply-to-post-mental.html

Perhaps this was all a misunderstanding but I am still baffled by someone rejecting money that could literally save the life of kids.

The donation process was not explained clearly, phone calls and emails were not returned on a timely matter, which makes me wonder whether or not the donated money that is given will be used as it’s supposed to.

I am ashamed of myself now for even wanting to donate to this shelter who helped me 10 years ago. I would have never in my life thought our money would have been rejected without good reasons.

We want to make it clear as well that we have never mentioned that we were affiliated with covenant house, working with them, or have had any ownership to their materials. We had never had in our possession their logos and information. We have only shared their links and youtube video provided to the public to share under copyright law 107 under fair use for educational purposes.

I am truly hurt to inform you that the organization (covenant house) has rejected our donation. We are however in search of another organization that can value the donated money and put the donation into great use. Feel free to contact me in world, Joshuan Banx if you know of any organizations that will be willing to accept the donation and can provide proof of the donation once it is received. You can also email me at JoshuanBanx@yahoo.com.

Here are the screenshots of those emails sent by me to covenant house (real life information has been blacked out in order to keep privacy to those real names):