Mass shooting survivors meet in Colorado Springs to discuss financial donations for victims
A group of mass shooting victims and family members from around the nation gathered Sunday in Colorado Springs. They are all too familiar with what happens to financial donations for victims.
"I hate to say it like this but as a survivor, we are looked at as cash cows," said Tiara Parker, who was shot three times in the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando.
"Millions of dollars pouring from everywhere, and thank God because the money needs to get here," said Victims' Rights Advocate, Dr. Zachary Blair. "The problem is when money comes, so do people who want the money."
They warn that organizations will try to take the money that people donated to victims.
"They will try to fit that tragedy into their mission so they can get the funding," said Shani-Angela Hervey from Orlando.
The victims say they have seen it happen over and over again in Colorado going back to the Aurora theater shooting. They also say since 2018, the chief offender is the Colorado Healing Fund.
"The healing fund collects your donations for victims and their families, but then they take a percentage for themselves, hand out a portion for the victims and then grant the rest to other local nonprofits or programs," said Amy Cook, an Aurora theater shooting survivor.
"There's no other state in the country that does this," Dr. Blair said. "Mass shootings across the country the victims get one hundred percent. Buffalo 100%, Oxford 100%, Uvalde 100%. I mean, the list goes on and on."
Victims of mass shootings in Colorado say this leaves many victims without help or jumping through hoops to get help.
"What continues to happen here in Colorado is revictimizing to mass shooting victims," Amy Cook said.
The coalition says they have tried to reach out to the State of Colorado to help them get all donated money to victims, but had no success.
"There's a lot of pushback. Everything wants to be done here locally," Tiara Parker said.
They say with or without their counsel, the Colorado Healing Fund needs to give victims their fair share.
"Taking money from them is nothing but a spit in the face. It has been nothing but a slap in the face," Tiara Parker said.
The Colorado Healing Fund sent the following statement to CBS News Colorado:
We understand the concerns and questions that arise out of a tragedy and the need the community has for information. We are committed to continuing to provide information in a timely manner, while also fulfilling our core function of working with victim assistance teams to help support victims of this tragedy with their immediate needs. The Board of Trustees is planning to authorize the release of additional funds this week to cover more immediate needs of those impacted. Last week it authorized $245,000.00 in disbursement. Our primary focus during a response is the families, but we are also supporting the needs of the additional people and community that were immediately impacted by this tragedy.
The Colorado Healing Fund is one of many organizations responding to this tragedy. We were created to fill gaps, and a large part of our work is identifying resources through other programs for victims, so we can stretch donations as far as possible and support as many people as possible in a meaningful way. We are working to coordinate so that every dollar raised can have the greatest impact for the people who have experienced this tragedy.
The fund has told CBS News Colorado in the past they do take a percentage for administration fees and another percentage goes to nonprofits.
Sunday's group encouraged anyone planning to donate to research the organization first.
