News of the Praying for Pizza windfall:
Jones says The Blaze has arranged for a financial planner to help the O'Connors figure out what to do with all that money. He adds that the family will announce its plans later this week and hopes to meet with some of its gay supporters. Attempts to contact the O'Connors for comment were unsuccessful.
The Blaze, a Glenn Beck organization, started the crowdfunding effort after the O'Connors sought out Blaze program host- and CNN contributor- Dana Loesch, who recently defended a conservative boy teen radio shockjock who called for shunning gay kids and claimed President Obama is making people gay; Loesch praised his "civic participation." The bell-ringing ended two days ago at $842,357 from 29,166 donors, for an average of $28.88 each.
GoFundMe takes 7.9% plus 30 cents of each donation, so it looks like the O'Connor family presumably will get over three-quarters of a million dollars – a little over $767,000.
GoFundMe will haul in about $75,000 from the Memories Pizza campaign.
The O'Connor family plans to keep an unspecified sum to cover their lost income for voluntarily shutting down their business for a week, citing fears that have now, apparently, evaporated. In a long interview with the UK's Daily Mail (a Tory paper owned by the Rothermere press family) Memories Pizza owner Kevin O'Connor admitted, given that they only sell a hundred pizzas a week- $12.99 for the 16-incher, when business is good. By that measure, the O'Connors were out $1300, tops, for the week they went to ground, daughter Crystal emerging only to give interviews on conservative TV programs about the fundraising for her business:
They revealed they are set to share their new fortune with disabled children, a women’s help group, fire fighters, police trusts, Christian churches and Washington florist Barronelle Stutzman, 70, who was fined after declaring she would not serve a gay wedding.
For the O'Connors, whatever they keep is a real windfall: Forbes reports since it is all gifted, it is tax free.
It is not clear why Stutzman is getting a cut of the pizza payout. Another group is crowdfunding for her. She incurred a $1000 fine and $1 in court costs for violating Washington's law against discrimination; she, too is being championed by the Glenn Beck outfit, The Blaze. Here's Blaze program host Dana Loesch:
Many have asked us why we didn't continue the fundraising for Memories Pizza longer. We only ever meant for it to go until Friday night. I've done enough successful crowdsourced fundraisers to know that we didn't want to burn out all the energy on one of many who are persecuted, when there are more just like the O'Connors who can also be helped. I think those of faith and those who love liberty have a responsibility to stand in the gap, just as we did with Memories Pizza. There are so many who have been persecuted with lawfare by the Intolerance Brigade; I hope that the O'Connors' story has brought this practice to light.
This brings me to the next persecuted individual I'd like to help.
The Beckster's Stutzman Shakedown has generated $153,770 from 4211 donors "in a month", the site says, although the campaign was started February 23.
Stutzman is averaging $36.51 each donation- a hefty premium over Memories Pizza shares- but it begs the questions, why is The Blaze portraying Stutzman as "the next victim" of the fascist gay bullies when their campaign for her started first? Why is money raised for Memories Pizza by The Blaze being, directed- with the assistance of a Blaze-selected financial planner- to another person The Blaze is raising money for, and continues to raise for even after they have shut down the pizza play?
The Memories Pizza crowdfund was shut down April 2. On April 3, Dana Loesch shifted the focus back to Stutzman, announcing that, while they had met their goal for her, Loesch wanted to keep the fundraising going. The Seattle Times reported on April 4 that over half of donations to the Stutzman campaign came in over the preceding 24 hours.
And why is an antigay florist worth only 18.6% of an antigay pizza baker? Or is The Blaze gonna shill this campaign until the numbers equal?
GoFundMe will collect about $12,000 on this campaign.
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