Aspire warns of fundraising scam
Howard Lake | 27 June 2004 | News
Spinal cord injury charity Aspire has warned of a door-to-door fundraising scam in Stanmore, north London.
Jenny Page, head of fundraising and marketing at Aspire, said that she had learned that a young man, probably about 14 years old, had been collecting door to door sponsorship for a swim that he said was taking place at the ASPIRE National Training Centre in aid of people suffering from epilepsy. He had already received pledges and cash from several people in an area of Stanmore, but one person became suspicious and rang Aspire to find out if it was genuine.
Ms Page was particularly concerned with the timing of the scam. She said: “we are concerned that it will impact on our major fundraising event – the ASPIRE Channel Swim which asks individuals and teams to swim the 22 mile distance of the English Channel in any pool over a 12 week period (13th September – 5th December).” She added that “we would encourage anyone with any doubts to phone the Aspire fundraising team to ensure that their valuable funds will only be used to help people with spinal cord injuries.”
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This is not the first time that Aspire’s name has been used by fraudulent fundraisers. A court case is already underway.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.