AFP Greater Madison

ETA: We have filed reports with the FTC and the FBI. The person whose photo was used to make the fake Google account has also been notified, as has the company whose business name was used on the fake check. ================================================= Sharing this whole long story as a heads up for a particularly despicable scam attempt. Apparently this has been happening to small nonprofits quite a lot lately. We received an inquiry to our info@ email from a person saying he & his wife were interested in donating, and asking about the donation process. He signed his name exactly like this: JEFFREY HANES. Red flags already, but I wrote him back. He replied with generic flattery (we have a "strong reputation," we are "highly regarded") & asked for our address. I gave him the address & he wrote back listing our address, asking if it was correct. So many red flags! He said they were going to donate $2k, we'd be getting a check from a company in Florida, & asked for deposit confirmation (v. confirmation of the donation... yet another red flag). I looked up the company & it exists, but found no association w/his name. No one on our team had heard of him. Then we received the check drawn on that Florida company, but sent from a completely different person in another state, & for $4k instead of $2k. I emailed him about the different amount & his vague answer was he didn't know what amount his wife might have decided, plus more generic flattery. He ignored my request for his address to mail the donation acknowledgement. Super sus. Almost immediately after informing him the check had been deposited, he replied saying he was "perplexed" by the amount. He wrote 3 paragraphs, completely ignoring my previous notification about the discrepancy. He said his "financial secretary" would be contacting us to "resolve the matter." After I reminded him I'd already informed him of the discrepancy, he started saying how it was very urgent that they get the overpayment back right away. We then almost immediately received an email from someone supposedly named "SARAH DAVID". The email was in all bold font and requested (can you guess what?) that we immediately WIRE them $2,000 to "DAVID SARAH" at a completely different bank in yet another state, or via PayPal to their "colleague/assistant" called "Raphael" (PayPal name: OGUNDELE RAPHAEL, with a completely unrelated email address. I alerted our bank about the fraud attempt, and they told us that they have seen this exact scam several times recently. Unfortunately, a lot of small nonprofit organizations fall for this and end up loosing not only the amount that they "refund" for the "overage," but also loose the original "donation" amount because they may have committed or spent the funds already and then that donation check bounces. Fortunately, we did not lose anything but the time wasted. Whew!

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If you only read one book about investing in yourself and your team, how to succeed in your professional life, or elevate your leadership skills, make it Unreasonable Hospitality. Here's why. ? When most people say they are reality TV fans, they generally mean shows like The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, Survivor, or one of the Real Housewives programs. For me, the reality shows that intrigue me the most revolve around cooking and baking. Top Chef, the Great British Bake Off, Holiday Baking Championship, and MasterChef are my must-watch reality TV. Cooking shows set in fictional worlds are favorites, too, including The Bear, where I first learned about Will Guidara's Unreasonable Hospitality. I looked it up and added it to my to-read list. But it wasn't until another year, when a presenter (Barbara O'Reilly, CFRE) at a fundraising conference (AFP Greater Madison, Fundraising Day Wisconsin) spoke about it, that I put it in my digital card (shop small! bookshop.org) and purchased it. Simply put, Unreasonable Hospitality is one of the best books about leadership that I have read. Yes, it's about restaurants and other hospitality businesses. Yes, the settings are high-end New York dining destinations. And, yes, the author knows and writes about legends in the culinary world. And I still found dozens of insights and applications relevant to my work in nonprofit communications. If you only read one book about investing in yourself and your team, how to succeed in your professional life, or elevate your leadership skills, make it Unreasonable Hospitality. I promise you won't regret it. #UnreasonableHospitality #Leadership #ProfessionalDevelopment #NonprofitCommunications #BookRecommendations

We were delighted to host the AFP Greater Madison Summer Social at The Creative Company, Inc. last night with our fantastic partners at Ascendium's Education Philanthropy! To learn more about how to get involved with this dynamic professional group, contact Jen Davie, CFRE ! This is the first summer social since before the pandemic! It was so good to see so many friends and fundraising professionals! #afp #philanthropy #madison