see official webpage →The McCann's Find Madeleine Campaign and Fund
→About the Fund: “Us” and “we” refers to Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited, a not-for-profit company, aka Madeleine's Fund, which has been established to find Madeleine McCann, support her family and bring her abductors to justice. The Fund is following best practice governance procedures as set out in the Good Governance Code for the Voluntary and Community Sector. The directors of the company are Brian Kennedy, Michael Linnett, Edward Smethurst, Jon Corner, Kate McCann & Gerry McCann. They have appropriate legal, business and charitable experience. An experienced Fund Administrator has been appointed to ensure the highest standards of transparency and accountability. This should enable the Directors to maintain an appropriate governance distance in the day-to-day operations of the Fund.
→Fund Objectives: The full objects of the Fund are: To secure the safe return to her family of Madeleine McCann who was abducted in Praia da Luz, Portugal on Thursday 3rd May 2007; To procure that Madeleine's abduction is thoroughly investigated and that her abductors, as well as those who played or play any part in assisting them, are identified and brought to justice; and To provide support, including financial assistance, to Madeleine's family. If the above objects are fulfilled then the objects of the Foundation shall be to pursue such purposes in similar cases arising in the United Kingdom, Portugal or elsewhere.
See also: Search for Mr. X
See also: Kate's Book
Some Critics
See →Wikipedia: “A fund-raising company, known as Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned, was launched in Leicester on 16 May 2007. The Fund is a limited company, not a registered charity, because its objectives are not wide enough to satisfy Charity Commission criteria for UK charities. The objectives include helping the extended family with their expenses and continuing the investigation independently should that prove necessary. Any excess funds would be used to help search for other abducted children. The Fund's website reportedly received 58 million hits and 16,000 messages of support by 18 May, only two days after its launch. Over £1,095,000 had been raised by 30 October 2007.”
See also article →The Guardian (02-June-2007) Neverending story: “…Until the evening of Thursday May 3, Kate and Gerry McCann were an anonymous couple from a small East Midlands town. Today they are at the centre of what has become an international publicity hurricane of quite unprecedented scale. Their daughter's face, screened at the FA Cup final, was seen by an estimated 500 million people;… Gordon Brown, while campaigning to become Labour leader, has worn a yellow ribbon to show solidarity with the McCanns; many of his colleagues did the same, along with David Beckham, countless premiership and SPL football teams and the England cricket team. JK Rowling, Sir Richard Branson, the theatre impresario Bill Kenwright, the philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter and Jacqueline Gold of the Ann Summers sex shop chain, have each pledged hundreds of thousands of pounds for information leading to Madeleine's safe return; one Scottish businessman offered a million. Sir Philip Green loaned his private jet, which took the couple to the Vatican and brought them back in time to tuck Madeleine's twin siblings into bed. BP, Exxon, McDonald's, Carrefour, the French bank Crédit Agricole and the Spanish Banco Santander are displaying her poster around Europe; Vodafone, O2 and the Spanish Telefonica network have sent text messages to their subscribers. In the US, Madeleine's face has appeared on the cover of People magazine, and Oprah Winfrey has invited the family on to her talk show….”
See also Article by Sol, Portugal: →Fund is not charity, 04 August 2007: “The 'Leaving No Stone Unturned' fund can already count on almost one million pounds in donations – approximately one million and four hundred thousand euros – but is not recognised by the Charity Commission, the entity that regulates all beneficient activities in the UK. “In order to be considered a charity, the fund would have to be constituted for the benefit of the public, and not to benefit one individual or a specific case”, a source from the comission explained to Sol. According to the same source, the Charity Commission decided not to accept the request that was made by Madeleine's parents to register the fund, after analysing the purpose of the collection of donations: “The McCanns failed to prove that they are collecting money to help other cases that are similar to Madeleine's”. The information that was collected with the English authorities contradicts the statements made by the McCanns' public relations to Sol, in our edition of July 7. Then, Justine McGuinness assured that the money that is received by Maddie's parents “is subject to very strict rules, that are imposed by British law on any charity fund”. At that time, the spokesperson for Kate and Gerry even explained that the decision to establish a fund was born from the need to “ensure that everything is done in a transparent way”. Confronted with this inconsistency, Justine McGuiness corrects her initial statement: “The fund is not considered a charity, but it aims to comply with the high standards that are demanded by the Charity Commission”. McGuinness does not explain why she did not clarify this from the beginning, but she guarantees that her role in the campaign to find Madeleine is to “be Gerry and Kate's spokesperson, and not the Fund's”. Still, she assures that all donations “are subject to strict British rules that regulate the activities of corporations without lucrative purposes”. According to a source from the Charity Commission, this juridical status means that the money that is collected by the fund “is not exempt of taxes in the United Kingdom”. Justine McGuinness does not comment, and directs any further explanation to the presentation text that can be read on the findmadeleine.com site, where it's written that the fund's managers are committed to guarantee the financial and juridical scrutiny of the fund. Although Sol insisted, it was not possible to reach anyone responsible with 'Leaving No Stone Unturned' – including John McCann, Gerry's brother, and Brian Kennedy, Kate's uncle.”
See also →Daily Mail, (30-Oct-2007), Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage
see also Critics at McCannFiles and other Websites:
The Website findmadeleine.com was established 4 days after the disappearence of Maddie. See for some informations →Calum MacRae and The McCann Website; →Millions have contacted the Madeleine McCann appeal website. Who runs it? Three teenagers from Ullapool. It is/was run by Calum MacRae, teenager son of a Police Officer.
“TWO young people hurriedly stuff yellow Look For Madeleine wristbands into envelopes, surrounded by cardboard boxes containing thousands more earmarked for the campaign. Nearby, in the untidy garage store room, Madeleine badges and posters are awaiting delivery to supporters around the world who have donated £2 for the bands that symbolise the search for the missing four-year-old. Policeman's son Calum MacRae, 18, is responsible for the campaign's website and distribution network for Madeleine's campaign from the unlikely location of the Loch Broom garage, on a windswept industrial estate on the outskirts of Ullapool, Wester Ross. Despite Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry, both 39, now being treated by Portuguese police as suspects in her disappearance while on holiday in the Algarve, Calum claims there has been a recent surge in interest in the website and wristbands….
Calum, who has designed websites “since he was 10” is paid out of the global donations to the fund, which won't be contributing to the McCanns' legal costs. He refused to be drawn on how much his team of six are paid, and the Sunday Herald's repeated calls to the fund's spokeswoman, Esther McVey, were not returned. He added: “I can't tell you that, it's not much honestly. We are just covering our costs. You would need to speak to the fund about that.” Calum is convinced of the couple's innocence and says he will continue to run the website even if they are charged and tried in Portugal. He said: “I know from speaking to Gerry on the phone that he is 100% innocent. …”
Calum became involved after Madeleine's aunt, Philomena McCann, his former schoolteacher in Ullapool, approached him four days after the girl disappeared on May 3. Another worker on the site, Rona Eddington, 18, the daughter of a senior police inspector in Rossshire, said: “We've had people saying in emails we killed her and taken her away' and we hate you.' We don't know if they are genuine, but they are passed to the police, who chase them all up. We've had so many like that and have to filter them. The website is about supporting the family.” Rona's father, chief inspector Paul Eddington, said he had no problems with his daughter's involvement in the website…“I view what my daughter is doing as a parent, rather than a police officer. In the unlikely event that the investigation did involve the website, I would take a pragmatic view and wouldn't seek to get involved,” said Eddington…. ”
In the mean time Calum MacRae and Rona Eddington got married. Rona's father Paul Eddington is Chief Inspector with Northern Constabulary Inverness, Scotland. In his past he was Constable at Metropolitan Police. Calum's father is a Policeman (Cameron MacRae) who is now also a Director of Website enterprise →Infohost with Calum. The company is a father and son arrangement. Calum is a former-student of Gerry McCann sister Philomena McCann.