The Donald J. Trump Foundation first contacted the Bob Woodruff Foundation last Tuesday, and a day later a $75,000 check showed up at the office, according to Sam Kille, the Woodruff Foundation’s communications manager.
{mosads}”We received a check for $75,000 last Wednesday,” Kille told The Hill. “We were told a day before a check would be coming.”
Kille said the donation was a surprise because the Woodruff Foundation did not have a past relationship with Trump or his foundation.
When someone from the Trump Foundation called to notify the group of the incoming money, Kille said, the caller didn’t specify an amount.
“We were pleasantly surprised when we opened the envelope,” Kille said. “We had no idea how much it was going to be.”
On Tuesday, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee announced the donation, along with many other gifts to veterans organizations totaling $5.6 million, at a heated news conference meant to put an end to media scrutiny.
Trump’s charitable giving had been put in the spotlight after media reports questioned whether the business mogul was following through on his promised fundraising for veterans groups.
Trump said he didn’t release the names of the veterans organizations sooner because he wanted to respect their privacy. He insisted that the money for a number of these groups was delivered some time ago and said the process of vetting the many organizations delayed the process in some cases.
Kille said the Woodruff Foundation was not aware that Trump was going to announce the donation until he said publicly he planned to, but the organization didn’t have a problem with it.
The Woodruff Foundation is at least the second organization that received a donation from Trump’s foundation last week.
Sue Boulhosa, executive director of the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, said Trump sent a $1 million from his personal bank account.
“We received a $1 million check from his personal account,” Boulhosa said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “The check is dated May 24.”
She said the group also received $100,000 in March from the Trump Foundation. The combined $1.1 million was by far the largest of the 41 donations Trump announced Tuesday.
The Woodruff Foundation was co-founded in 2006 by ABC News journalist Bob Woodruff and his family after he was seriously wounded while covering the Iraq War.
Kille said no demands were made in return for the donation and that the foundation has never received any donations from any organization affiliated with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
He said the foundation weighed whether or not to accept a check but reasoned that the money was not from Trump himself, but from his foundation and donors across the country.
“The funds do go to veterans,” Kille said. “We’re very grateful for the generosity.”
“We’ve seen larger checks, thankfully, [but] $75,000 was a significant check,” he said.
–Jonathan Swan contributed to this report.