I had been volunteered for a nonprofit organization from a friend who ran an event, and there was so little direction and support from the higher ups, so it was up to me to lead myself. The first year was successful, and by the second I was requested to expand, setup credit card taking, expand the program, lead a full team, whole 9 yards.
One of the others setup a PayPal for us, but did none of the key things for the account that I knew nothing about, so after an hour of taking payments, the account got locked. In a panic, the leaders noted they didn’t have accounts, so had me use mine instead, and I took note of how much personal money I had, and logged into my account and had everyone charge money to me for the entire time.
Every night, I had to give an accurate count of money, and by the last night of the event, gave out the total to tons of smiles.
The cash was put in one of the leaders rooms, for them to take to the bank. They advised me to keep the digital money in my account, since the other was locked, but I had to keep using it, as people paid me for shared utilities, rent, and I used it for shopping.
5 months later, they finally went to take the money to the bank, being swamped, and everyone accused me of stealing with almost $2k missing. Despite all of my attempts at explanations of PayPal fees, the fact that the cash money was accessible to 9 people living in the house that all knew the code to the cash lock box, and people scouring my personal account’s transaction history that I spent money I had/was getting, the blame still fell on me. I was not allowed to touch any of the money again the next event, and was under extreme scrutiny for all it. I left after the stress of that next year, and feel shame for the sour taste in my mouth for it.
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