ORLANDO, Fla. — Leaked financial documents show a year before onePULSE Foundation announced it would dissolve, onePULSE was missing fundraising goals by tens of thousands of dollars.
Investigative Reporter Ashlyn Webb spoke to former onePULSE Foundation employees that said while they weren’t bringing enough money in, the cost of the proposed memorial project kept growing.
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June 12 will mark eight years since a gunman killed 49 people in Pulse Nightclub.
But still, there is no permanent memorial after onePULSE Foundation, the nonprofit that set out to build the memorial, officially dissolved this year.
Pulse shooting survivors and victims’ families have asked why there is still no memorial.
Read: Department of Homeland Security reviews complaint on onePULSE Foundation
OnePULSE Foundation confirmed the estimated cost of the project ballooned to roughly $100 million, double what it was originally estimated for.
Pulse shooting survivors and victims’ families say they want answers on why there is still no memorial.
“We owe them an explanation as to why there isn’t a memorial, already, there should be a memorial it should have been built and finished,” said Mark Cady-Archilla, a former onePULSE Foundation employee.
Cady-Archilla left the organization in 2023 after spending five years with the organization. He served as its corporate partnership officer, tasked with fundraising.
Read: OnePULSE Foundation officially dissolves
“When I first started, our goal was around $35 million,” Cady-Archilla said.
That goal quickly escalated to upwards of $100 million for the project. Cady-Archilla said it’s a figure executives wouldn’t let staff share to donors or the public.
“They would never rip the bandage off, and allow us to say, we are trying to raise $100 million for the entire project,” Cady-Archilla said. “I made a comment on many occasions, ‘I don’t know where this money is going to come from.’”
He said this was as money was trickling in slower and slower.
According to the Foundation’s tax filings, it ended 2022 in a $720,000 deficit.
Based on financial documents obtained by 9 Investigates, the Foundation ended 2022, missing its revenue goal by $1.2 million.
Documents show the fundraising campaigns onePULSE relied on weren’t even close to its goals.
An example was its National Campaign fund which was more than $700,000 behind its goal three quarters into the year. At the time, it brought in a third of what the Foundation budget for that year.
During OnePULSE’s existence, the nonprofit raised a little over $20 million dollars.
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