An animal shelter in Collinsville, Oklahoma which always struggled financially received a $188K check from the estate of an unindentified deceased animal lover. Two weeks later, it received a request from the law firm administering the decedent's estate to return the check because the bequest was intended for a shelter with the same name in Collinsville, Illinois. The shelter has not yet returned the check, although it has said it will.
Several points:
1. In making charitable bequests, I always list the address of the charity to prevent this type of confusion.
2. Because of its error, the law firm has stated it will donate $12K to the Oklahoma shelter, which is 6x more than the shelter usually has in the bank.
3. Apparently the Oklahoma shelter spent some of the $188K, perhaps $12K, or else it would have returned the funds last month.
