Centura Health in Centennial, Colo., is suing a crowdfunding website over allegations that it held unauthorized fundraisers on behalf of two of its hospitals, according to Business Den.
Centura claims that it never hired defendant Community Funded nor that it authorized the defendant to use Centura’s hospital names in the fundraising activity.
According to the lawsuit, Community Funded hosted two fundraisers on its site to raise money for the hospitals' nursing scholarship. One of the fundraisers raised $20,307 from 62 donors.
Though the campaign ended March 12 and Community Funded said Centura received the funds, the health system claims in the lawsuit that it did not receive the funds and was unaware of the campaign's existence until recently.
The lawsuit also claims that Centura was unable to contact the 62 donors about the donations.
"Earlier this year, Centura Health became aware of a false charitable campaign by a company called Community Funded that claimed to be fundraising on behalf of two Centura hospitals," a spokesperson for the hospital told Business Den. "Centura never agreed to hire this organization and did not authorize it to use the hospital names in fundraising activity."
Community Funded told the publication that the lawsuit was a misunderstanding and that the alleged fundraisers were test pages. The spokesperson said it never hosted live fundraisers for Centura, and, instead, the campaigns were test sites set up by a former employee as a demonstration for Centura.
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