A well-intentioned fundraiser became a costly mistake when the operator of an Instagram page routed donations to the wrong place.
The I-70 Things Instagram account describes itself as “documenting all the wild things that happen on I-70.” The page posted Saturday night saying that it had received inquiries about how to help victims of the Colorado wildfires, and added a link to its page inviting people to donate.
While the campaign appeared to benefit the Community Foundation Boulder County, the site was actually routing donations to the Boulder Community Foundation in Boulder, Utah, KUSA reported.
After realizing the mistake, the I-70 Instagram page admitted what happened, and posted a letter the Instagram page’s owner sent to the Utah organization attempting to explain the confusion, and requesting that the money be re-routed to the intended recipients.
The fundraiser, which had an original goal of $10,000, raised $266,189 from nearly 9,000 donors, KUSA reported.
An Instagram post on the I-70 page Monday confirmed that the Utah charity agreed to re-route the money back to the Community Foundation of Boulder County for the fire victims.
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