Lakeville director of nonprofit to support foster children ordered to pay back donations after using money to purchase, fix up her own house

Deanna Weniger, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
·2 min read

Sep. 23—The director of a nonprofit for foster children has been ordered to pay $66,000 to the state after the attorney general's office found that donations to her company were misappropriated.

Genevieve LaVoi, of Lakeville, said her intent in founding "A Place to Call Home" was to provide financial support to foster homes. She is a foster parent and used the funds to first prepare her own house to take in more children before helping other families, she said.

Attorney General Keith Ellison, said she erred when she made herself both a board member and a beneficiary.

"I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to use the funds for myself, so I agreed to pay it back," LaVoi said. "I thought I was doing something good. I thought I was trying to help the community and help foster children and other foster families, but I guess we missed something in case law that I did not know was there or even how to find it."

She is currently fostering a young adult and a newborn, she said.

According to the civil complaint, APCH incorporated as a Minnesota nonprofit in 2016 with the two-fold mission of raising money to assist in the funding of foster homes and to solicit volunteers to help provide for the needs of foster children.

LaVoi listed herself and two others as board members.

Between 2016 and 2019, APCH received $136,216 in donations. Of those, $66,085 came from the Medtronic Foundation.

The complaint shows that LaVoi then spent most of the money buying a house and fixing it up. LaVoi said, since she was a foster parent, she felt the funds were being used appropriately, in that they were benefiting the children she fostered in her home.

Ellison didn't see it that way.

"Instead of using the donations made to APCH to help foster children, LaVoi used the money to buy herself a house, make home improvements, and pay her mortgage," Ellison said. "Taking money from children to buy things for yourself is inexcusable: it doesn't just hurt children, it hurts every Minnesotan who puts their trust in charities."

The settlement permanently bans LaVoi and two former APCH directors, Renee LaVoi and Thomas Gray, from operating a charity, having access to charitable assets, or soliciting charitable contributions in Minnesota. LaVoi also is subject to an additional penalty of over $60,000 if she violates her settlement. In addition, APCH must liquidate its assets, distribute them to a Minnesota-based charity that benefits foster children, and dissolve its operations.