I messed up, but overall - things are great.

We have raised about 75% of the money we need to send Brenda to school for this school year. Oh boy do I hope the other 25% shows up soon! She registers next Tuesday and starts school Wednesday. It is amazing to me that at the beginning of July there didn't seem to be any way for Brenda to attend school and now it's happening. This has all moved very quickly and exceeds what I would have imagined on my own. I am so grateful to the many people that stepped up and said, "Raise $10,000? Sure, we can do that." 

However, due to the fast pace of this process there were some assumptions made on my part that are now coming back to sock me in the guts. (You know, that feeling you get when something doesn't go how you planned and you feel like puking?) Well, that's the situation I'm currently in.

Many blogs ago when the idea for a scholarship fund was formed I wrote that I would run the donations through a non-profit organization; either the school where I work or the Agency for New Americans and donors would receive a receipt for the donation. Well, it turns out that my naive assumptions about accounting have caused a problem. ( I guess they'll keep me teaching about people and how to speak Spanish. No CPA jobs for me.) Due to the large scope of this fundraiser and it's informal "no red tape" process, the non-profits I have contact with are not able to accept the funds without mucking up their own accounting. I apologize for saying that there would be a tax write off for the donations. It will have to be viewed by our donors as a simple gift with no tax benefits attached.

The good news is that I have not heard from one single donor, "I really don't care about this Brenda lady's education. I just want the tax write off."

So how is it going to work now? I will go with Brenda to set up a bank account specifically for the scholarship. Her name will be on the account. The PayPal account will link directly to this account. I will transfer money monthly to Brenda's account so she receives the $1000 a month we planned from the start. Essentially, the only change is that she will not be receiving a check from a non-profit organization. She'll be learning about bank accounts and transferring funds and all that good stuff.

So again, I am very sorry that I gave wrong information in the beginning and said things that I am now not able to carry out. But to those of you that donated, THANK YOU ANYWAY! And for those of you that still want to be one of Brenda's angels - you have all the facts.

Send contributions directly to Brenda through me or mail me a check written to Brenda Muhoza Matata.