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Contact7 fixes Facebook fundraiser issue for viewer

Posted at 4:41 PM, Sep 13, 2019
and last updated 2019-09-13 21:43:43-04

Editor's note: Contact7 seeks out audience tips and feedback to help people in need, resolve problems and hold the powerful accountable. If you know of a community need our call center could address, or have a story idea for our investigative team to pursue, please email us at contact7@thedenverchannel.com or call (720) 462-7777. Find more Contact7 stories here.

LAKEWOOD, Colo. — A Lakewood woman not only lost her husband to a long-term illness, she wasn’t able to receive any money from an online fundraiser to pay for his funeral expenses. That is, until Contact7 got involved.

“He was larger than life to me,” Linda Olivette said about her late husband, Frank. “We had a really good marriage and I miss him a lot.”

Frank passed away in April. Linda’s daughter then set up a Facebook fundraiser to help defray costs and expenses.

“If I needed help with (the) funeral, for expenses, whatever I needed it for,” Linda said.

But after bringing in more than $3,000 in donations, Linda ran into trouble receiving those funds. The fundraiser was set up by her daughter, using her bank account, but in Linda’s name. Because of those crossed wires, she hadn’t gotten a dime.

“We couldn’t get the money from them,” she said.

That’s when Linda reached out to Contact7.

“As soon as you contacted them that’s when they emailed and apologized,” she explained.

Linda then received an email from Facebook that read in part: Facebook will be donating $3132.22 to your account to replace the funeral expenses that were paid out to the incorrect bank account for your fundraiser, “Frank’s funeral expenses."

“I don’t think I would have ever got it. I ran out of options and you guys were very gracious to help me and I’m very grateful for you,” she said through tears.