An out-of-state fundraising organization that claims to help Tucson-area foster children has pulled the plug on a charity event it has been advertising for months to solicit local donations.
But the event is still being advertised on Facebook, and fundraisers still are collecting donations for the now-canceled event, which the organizer said he plans to reschedule.
Fundraisers working for California-based Southern AZ Foster Kids were stationed at tables outside local businesses on Friday, the day after canceling the Saturday, Aug. 18, scheduled trip to the Reid Park Zoo that local donations were supposed to pay for.
Local donors aren’t told the fundraising outfit is headquartered in California or that solicitors staffing the donation tables keep half of the money they collect, the Arizona Daily Star found in a recent investigation.
The canceled zoo trip means the organization, which has operated in Tucson since April, still has yet to spend a single dollar helping local foster families. Its first advertised event in May at a fun park was paid for with a check that didn’t clear the bank, the Star’s investigation found.
Phoenix-area resident Bruce Lee Landau, 63, founder and CEO of Southern AZ Foster Kids, still owes Funtasticks Family Fun Park an estimated $650 for that event.
Landau told the Star on Friday that he still doesn’t know how much money his solicitors have raised to date. But he estimated that about 28 percent of every dollar he raises in Tucson would actually end up benefiting foster children.
The other 72 percent would pay for overhead such as office rental, phones and the 50 percent cut of donations his table solicitors receive.
Landau said he canceled the zoo trip because established foster care agencies in Tucson refused to participate.
The agencies balked, he said, because the date and time of the event was advertised at his donation tables and on his organization’s Facebook page. Agency officials feared foster children could be put in harm’s way if the parents they were taken away from saw the ads and showed up at the zoo unannounced.
Landau said Friday he didn’t realize the complexities involved in holding events for foster children when he set out to raise money for them. He agreed the reason he didn’t know is because he didn’t check with local foster care agencies when he came to town, something he now views as a mistake.
“I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into, it’s as simple as that,” he said. “I didn’t know it was dangerous. It didn’t even enter my mind.”
He said he’s still collecting donations because he now plans to hold an unpublicized event for foster children at a future date. He said he plans to meet with local foster agencies next week to seek their blessing.
Landau canceled the zoo trip Thursday afternoon but his solicitors were collecting donations at tables outside at least four local businesses on Thursday afternoon and Friday.
“He was at four sites that we know of, collecting money and saying it was for the zoo,” said Lin Leclair Turner, a board member with the Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation who has taken issue with Landau’s methods.
Turner said she recently complained to the IRS about Landau’s organization and suggested they check to see how he’s managing the funds he’s collected.
Landau’s Tucson organization is a branch of his San Diego-based charity, the California Helping Hands Foundation, which he opened in late 2015. But he’s now banned from fundraising in that state for failing to file nonprofit tax returns in 2016 or 2017, California’s Attorney General’s Office said.
Landau said he regrets how he’s handled things in Tucson and hoped to “make amends” by holding the future zoo trip and possibly donating some of the money he’s collected to local agencies.
“I don’t want to endanger kids. I have my own kids, and grandkids,” he said.
“I’m just sick over this, I really am.”
