Givealittle fight is finally settled – TDB stands by our advocacy
A landmark Givealittle dispute has finally been resolved — and it raises bigger questions about trust, accountability, and who charity donations are really meant to help.
A five-month legal battle over more than $30,000 donated to a Givealittle page is finally over.
Why the Givealittle dispute mattered beyond one family
The page was created after 28-year-old father Kane Watson died after a sand dune collapsed on him at Muriwai Beach in August last year.
In a legal first for Givealittle fundraisers, the release of the donated funds was halted after Watson’s partner gained an interim High Court freezing order.
Jasmine Cooke – who was pregnant with her second child to Watson when he died – took the legal action following a disagreement that ultimately led to her to being cut out of receiving any of the money.
But after a series of hearings in the Auckland High Court, an agreement has been reached between Cooke and defendants Kristalle Tayler – the creator of the page and a friend of Watson’s family – and Watson’s sister, Shaquille Thoumine.
TDB was the first to report on this terrible dispute.
We were threatened with defamation action if we didn’t remove our original post.
Thankfully the story remained on TDB long enough for other mainstream media with much larger legal teams and budgets to pick up the story and push back.
TDB stands by its advocacy on the Givealittle case
TDB’s position has remained the same throughout this.
We believed passionately that the vast majority of people donating to this Givealittle fund would have done so in good faith that the money raised would be used to help the widow because the story of a young Dad mucking around at the beach with his kids and dying so tragically like this touched a deep emotional nerve in many many many people and that seeing as Givealittle has become a dominant player in this field of grief and charity funding, they had an obligation to ensure the money raised would help those people donating believed would be helped.
We are extremely proud of the Cookes for having the temerity to be the first to take a case like this to Court, they have ensured there is precedent for others caught up in situations like this.
We wish Jasmine Cooke and her whanau the best for the future.
