# Madeleine's Fund

see official webpage →The McCann's Find Madeleine Campaign and Fund

→About the Fund: “Us” and “we” refers to Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited, a not-for-profit company, aka Madeleine's Fund, which has been established to find Madeleine McCann, support her family and bring her abductors to justice. 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 Brian Kennedy, Michael Linnett, Edward Smethurst, Jon Corner, Kate McCann & Gerry McCann. 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.

→Fund Objectives: The full objects of the Fund are: To secure the safe return to her family of Madeleine McCann who was abducted in Praia da Luz, Portugal on Thursday 3rd May 2007; To procure that Madeleine's abduction is thoroughly investigated and that her abductors, as well as those who played or play any part in assisting them, are identified and brought to justice; and To provide support, including financial assistance, to Madeleine's family. If the above objects are fulfilled then the objects of the Foundation shall be to pursue such purposes in similar cases arising in the United Kingdom, Portugal or elsewhere.

See also: Search for Mr. X

See also: Kate's Book

Some Critics

See →Wikipedia: “A fund-raising company, known as Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned, was launched in Leicester on 16 May 2007. The Fund is a limited company, not a registered charity, because its objectives are not wide enough to satisfy Charity Commission criteria for UK charities. The objectives include helping the extended family with their expenses and continuing the investigation independently should that prove necessary. Any excess funds would be used to help search for other abducted children. The Fund's website reportedly received 58 million hits and 16,000 messages of support by 18 May, only two days after its launch. Over £1,095,000 had been raised by 30 October 2007.”

See also article →The Guardian (02-June-2007) Neverending story: “…Until the evening of Thursday May 3, Kate and Gerry McCann were an anonymous couple from a small East Midlands town. Today they are at the centre of what has become an international publicity hurricane of quite unprecedented scale. Their daughter's face, screened at the FA Cup final, was seen by an estimated 500 million people;… Gordon Brown, while campaigning to become Labour leader, has worn a yellow ribbon to show solidarity with the McCanns; many of his colleagues did the same, along with David Beckham, countless premiership and SPL football teams and the England cricket team. JK Rowling, Sir Richard Branson, the theatre impresario Bill Kenwright, the philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter and Jacqueline Gold of the Ann Summers sex shop chain, have each pledged hundreds of thousands of pounds for information leading to Madeleine's safe return; one Scottish businessman offered a million. Sir Philip Green loaned his private jet, which took the couple to the Vatican and brought them back in time to tuck Madeleine's twin siblings into bed. BP, Exxon, McDonald's, Carrefour, the French bank Crédit Agricole and the Spanish Banco Santander are displaying her poster around Europe; Vodafone, O2 and the Spanish Telefonica network have sent text messages to their subscribers. In the US, Madeleine's face has appeared on the cover of People magazine, and Oprah Winfrey has invited the family on to her talk show….”

See also Article by Sol, Portugal: →Fund is not charity, 04 August 2007: “The 'Leaving No Stone Unturned' fund can already count on almost one million pounds in donations – approximately one million and four hundred thousand euros – but is not recognised by the Charity Commission, the entity that regulates all beneficient activities in the UK. “In order to be considered a charity, the fund would have to be constituted for the benefit of the public, and not to benefit one individual or a specific case”, a source from the comission explained to Sol. According to the same source, the Charity Commission decided not to accept the request that was made by Madeleine's parents to register the fund, after analysing the purpose of the collection of donations: “The McCanns failed to prove that they are collecting money to help other cases that are similar to Madeleine's”. The information that was collected with the English authorities contradicts the statements made by the McCanns' public relations to Sol, in our edition of July 7. Then, Justine McGuinness assured that the money that is received by Maddie's parents “is subject to very strict rules, that are imposed by British law on any charity fund”. At that time, the spokesperson for Kate and Gerry even explained that the decision to establish a fund was born from the need to “ensure that everything is done in a transparent way”. Confronted with this inconsistency, Justine McGuiness corrects her initial statement: “The fund is not considered a charity, but it aims to comply with the high standards that are demanded by the Charity Commission”. McGuinness does not explain why she did not clarify this from the beginning, but she guarantees that her role in the campaign to find Madeleine is to “be Gerry and Kate's spokesperson, and not the Fund's”. Still, she assures that all donations “are subject to strict British rules that regulate the activities of corporations without lucrative purposes”. According to a source from the Charity Commission, this juridical status means that the money that is collected by the fund “is not exempt of taxes in the United Kingdom”. Justine McGuinness does not comment, and directs any further explanation to the presentation text that can be read on the findmadeleine.com site, where it's written that the fund's managers are committed to guarantee the financial and juridical scrutiny of the fund. Although Sol insisted, it was not possible to reach anyone responsible with 'Leaving No Stone Unturned' – including John McCann, Gerry's brother, and Brian Kennedy, Kate's uncle.”

See also →Daily Mail, (30-Oct-2007), Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage

see also Critics at McCannFiles and other Websites:

1. →The Madeleine Foundation - 163 Questions and 50 Facts
2. →The Official Site
3. →Madeleine's Fund
4. →Official McCann Facebook Updates
5. →Madeleine's Fund Accounts to 31/03/2013
6. →Madeleine's Fund Accounts to 31/03/2012
7. →Madeleine's Fund Accounts to 31/03/2009
8. →The Fund Comitee, details and pictures
9. →Some more Characters at AbuseOfPower
10. →McCann-Fund-Fraud Info