Over the past month, Something Wild has experienced an emotional rollercoaster. After weeks of steady progress, our fundraising campaign suddenly surged beyond our goal thanks to a series of large donations made through a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) service. For a moment, it looked like our dream was within reach. Unfortunately, that moment didn’t last.
What happened?
Our campaign had reached approximately $403,000 in verified donations, mostly anonymous contributions processed through DAFFY, a DAF platform that worked in coordination with another DAF service, Chariot.
Everything appeared to be legitimate, especially after we received state documentation confirming Something Wild as a charity in good standing with the Mississippi government.
Then we received the news none of us expected.
Chariot contacted us to explain that DAFFY had cancelled the large donations that pushed us over our goal because of “Suspicious activity”.
At first, that was all we knew, but after further communication, we were told the donations had been made using fraudulent bank details. DAFFY acknowledged the issue and admitted that they did not have enough verification checks in place to prevent this from happening.
We were likely targeted because our PayPal details are publicly available. The large donations were removed from our total, setting the campaign back by more than $200,000.
The impact
This has created serious challenges:
- The GoFundMe had automatically closed for 2 weeks when the big donations came in. During that time, we likely missed out on many potential contributions.
- After the cancellations, our true total dropped back to around $200,000.
- We are unsure whether the seller, who has already shown great patience, will be able to continue waiting.
- Our deadline is now the 9th of January 2026.
Moving forward
Despite this setback, the mission hasn’t been changed, and neither has our determination.
Our GoFundMe is now reopened, and we are once again pushing toward the goal with everything we have. This project means the world to us, and it means the world to the beavers we are trying to protect.
How can you help?
If you’ve been waiting to donate or if you can help us spread the word, now is the moment. Every share, every dollar, every single boost matters more than ever.
This campaign has always been fuelled by community support, trust, and love for the natural world. We’re asking you to stand with us again as we rebuild the momentum we lost.
Help us help beavers.
Beavers never give up, and neither will we.
Perhaps you could reach out to a news organization. I see many stories like this on FOX News Channel. So many of the anchors are animal lovers.
I’m Penny Verley and I love and appreciate all that you’re doing. My friend Bob and I (who can build or fix anything) would like to come down. Spend some time helping in anyway we can. We could probably give you 7 days of time.
Bob and I have remodeled four homes,
Are hard workers and most importantly, we love animals and I’m in love with tulip ❣️