Ah, what a mess. Hopefully no one will create problems for them since it seems their intentions are good, and 826 Valencia (McSweeney's nationwide network of w

Ah, what a mess. Hopefully no one will create problems for them since it seems their intentions are good, and 826 Valencia (McSweeney's nationwide network of writing workshops for young people) is quite awesome. I don't know what their original contracts with customers said, that contract is what needs to govern what happens to money collected that was not distributed. Perhaps the contract never thought to take into account left over money though. If that's the case, then the leftover amounts, calculated as the percentage of funds received per person that weren't disbursed based on their reading habits, should be refunded to the original customers. I think it would be worth also emailing each person and asking them what they want done - do they want it donated to 826 Valencia, or would they prefer their money back. Most will give permission to donate it since they are each small amounts anyway, but others will have problems getting ahold of them because their emails will bounce. But it will at least allow getting permission from many as to what they want done. This is all presuming, to state again, that this case of undistributable funds was not covered in the original contract. There is one case I am familiar with where a person collected money for a certain cause, but wasn't able to use the money for that cause. He didn't keep track of the people who he collected the money from (some of this was passing baskets around at churches) and so he just decided to donate all the money (around $10,000) to a different charity he chose. He ended up charged with theft and misappropriation of funds. So you have to be careful with this stuff. (No case citation as I know the person professionally and don't wish to call attention to him, just making the point that collecting money for one thing and then spending it on another can lead to problems in some cases even when your intentions are pure.)