Donations to Madeleine McCann’s search fund have dried up after 11 years — so what’s next?

Donations to Madeleine McCann’s search fund have dried up after 11 years — so what’s next?

The McCanns could lose the last bit of money they have for the search if a EU court rules against them


IT remains the most famous missing person case in living history, broke the heart of a nation and sparked searches all over the world.

When Madeleine McCann disappeared just days shy of her fourth birthday during a family holiday to Portugal in 2007, the public response was overwhelming in terms of grief, fascination and a desperation to find her.


This goodwill translated into an outpouring of donations to the fund set up to “leave no stone unturned”, which topped £1.8million within a few months.

Yet now, after 11 years of failed investigations all over the world and lengthy legal battles, the public has simply stopped giving.



Last night a family source admitted: “There are no public donations of any value.” The fund’s online shop selling stickers, T-shirts and missing posters has shut down.

It comes after we revealed that Madeleine’s Fund — which still has nearly three quarters of a million pounds left in its accounts — could be virtually wiped out if a European court case goes against the family.


Last year it earned £7,180, but most of that came from interest on more than £500,000 invested by stockbrokers to pay for private investigators when Scotland Yard stops its probe, titled Operation Grange.

And our inquiries this week have revealed that donations from the public have virtually dried up over the past three years.



In the first months after Madeleine vanished from the family’s holiday apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz, £1.8million flooded into the fund, including more than £64,000 from sales of T-shirts, wristbands and “holiday packs” — posters and car stickers holidaymakers could paste up when they went abroad.

The following year generous supporters donated more than £600,000, with merchandise again a major part of the fund’s income.

By 2012 accounts show more £306,393 was still coming in from the public, much of it from sales in the online shop.

But the following year income from the public dropped to £70,000, and by 2014 supporters gave just £21,265, including only £2,744 from people buying T-shirts and wristbands.

Kate McCann recently posted on the Fund website that she is no longer able to deal with sales of posters and T-shirts that help fund the hunt for her daughter, who would now be 15. Her post reads: “Unfortunately, due to many commitments and pressures, I am unable to attend to website orders.

“Your support means a lot to us. Your kindness and generosity is no less appreciated, however, and continues to buoy us up.”
Donations from well-wishers have now dwindled to nothing.

A family friend said: “Public donations dried up a long time ago. Every time the story comes into the news a few kind people generously send a few quid in.

“Last year’s tenth anniversary brought it into the public’s minds and most normal rational, kind human beings will donate then.

“But the idea that money is still flooding in is just wrong. There are no public donations of any real value. In 2007 and 2008 the money was coming in but there was a gradual fade off after that.”


Support for Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry was rocked when Portuguese police named them as “arguidos”, or suspects, in September 2007, and again when it emerged they had used public donations to pay two £2,000 instalments on their mortgage.

The couple were also subjected to baseless yet frenzied social media allegations of involvement in their daughter’s death.

The only extra money going into the fund now is from royalties on the book Kate wrote in 2011 about the case — Madeleine: Our Daughter’s Disappearance And The Continuing Search For Her.

Together with serialisation deals, it is understood the book — which became a best-seller — has raised nearly £1million for the fund, which has six trustees including Kate and Gerry, both 50.

Last year the book raised royalties amounting to £84,096.

An insider said: “The fund always generates lots of animosity on social media and criticism. Some people think it is all public donations. It isn’t. In the early days more than a million pounds came in on a wave of sympathy in the shock of what had happened.

“That money was largely spent in the first few years on private investigative work, as those donors would have wanted it to be. The original funds that have been given by public donation have long been spent, properly, but spent.”

Tax expert Jim Lee, who has studied accounts filed by the fund since 2008, confirmed: “The accounts no longer say where their income is coming from. Most of it is from stock market investments and royalties from Kate’s book.



In the early days there were a lot on donations being made to their fund but they are certainly not getting the money from the public that once flowed in.”

Most recent accounts revealed how just over £65,000 was spent on fees for the McCann’s Portuguese lawyer, Isabel Duarte, to cover the several years it took to lodge a case in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

The legal action is aimed at overturning a Portuguese Supreme Court ruling that detective Goncalo Amaral — who wrote a book about the case claiming Madeleine died in Portugal and her parents covered it up — did not defame the McCanns.

If the couple lose the European Court of Human Rights case they face having to pay Amaral £430,000 in damages, plus costs, which could wipe out most of the remaining money.


https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7319265/madeleine-mccann-donations-dried-up/





How nice that the Sun print such a superb pic of Goncalo Amaral holding up his book

Kate McCann recently posted on the Fund website that she is no longer able to deal with sales of posters and T-shirts that help fund the hunt for her daughter, who would now be 15. Her post reads: “Unfortunately, due to many commitments and pressures, I am unable to attend to website orders.

“Your support means a lot to us. Your kindness and generosity is no less appreciated, however, and continues to buoy us up.”
Donations from well-wishers have now dwindled to nothing.

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It's difficult to see how Kate could be 'bouyed up' by the generosity of support when 'donations from well-wishers have now dwindled to nothing'..... (is this the Sun doing irony....??)

It could mean that the general moral support from the McCann groupies and nice but dim brigade - telling her how wonderful she is and that one day her daughter will come home - is keeping Kate buoyed up.  

I'm sure though that she wishes they'd put their money where their mouths are!