Under the trust deed of the RFS, money donated can be used only “to meet the costs of purchasing and maintaining fire-fighting equipment”, for “training and resources” and the “administrative expenses of the Brigades”. Barber’s fundraiser, conducted on Facebook, is among many that are specifically directed to the RFS trustee. “The trust fund can only be used for the purposes of, essentially, maintaining the RFS brigades. Fittler told Guardian Australia the PayPal trust was a “public ancillary fund”. On Tuesday, a PayPal spokesman said they had already started distributing the money from the Giving Fund to the RFS trustee.

Source: The Guardian January 14, 2020 08:15 UTC