Jill Duggar And Derick Dillard Shut Down Fundraiser As Fans Beg Duggar Family To Help Hurricane Victims

Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard are no longer asking fans to fund their latest ministry venture. The Counting On stars were asking for thousands of dollars so that Derick could attend a year-long program run by his church, but they shut down their online fundraiser after just two people donated small sums of money over the course of a few days.

As reported by CafeMom, Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard recently used their popular social media accounts to direct fans to Derick’s fundraising page on the Pure Charity website. They were trying to raise a total of $6,500 to cover the cost of Derick’s enrollment in Cross Church School of Ministry (CCSM), a program that would allow the Duggar husband—and possibly Jill—to continue doing mission work. Earlier this month, Jill and Derick revealed that they had abandoned their plan to return to El Salvador, where they spent less than two years on a long-term mission trip. However, through CCSM, Derick says that he will get to go on “trips for Gospel-advancement and humanitarian work in Northwest Arkansas, North America, and abroad.”

Unfortunately for the Counting On star, fans have been reluctant to fund these voyages. The Duggar Family News: Life Is Not All Pickles and Hairspray Facebook page recently reported that Derick “has thrown in the towel and closed his ‘fundraiser.'” He only received $125 in donations over the course of three days.

“This Fundraiser has ended and is no longer accepting funding,” reads a message on the right-hand side of Derick’s Pure Charity page.

Derick has not revealed whether his failure to raise money will prevent him from taking part in the CCSM program. However, according to the CCSM website, raising funds for the program’s three mission trips is just encouraged, not mandatory. In other words, he and Jill could use their own money to cover the cost instead of asking for donations.

Some fans of the Duggar Family News Facebook page speculated that the reality show stars ended their fundraiser because they were receiving so much negative feedback. Soon after it first went up, their fundraising page was flooded with complaints that they should be using the money they make from appearing on Counting On to pay for the CCSM program instead of asking their less fortunate fans to hand over their hard-earned cash. This line of thinking may have something to do with why Jill and Derick received just two donations.

While Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard were struggling to raise money for their next mission trips, one of Jill’s family members was reminiscing about an overseas vacation that the Duggars got to go on back when they were still filming 19 Kids and Counting.

“Today, I was thinking of all the amazing opportunities our family has had to see the world! Here is a picture from our trip to China!” read a post on the Duggar Family Facebook page.

The post included a photo of Johannah and Jackson Duggar wearing rain ponchos and bamboo hats.

https://www.facebook.com/duggarfamilyofficial/photos/a.518180528315601.1073741828.510067475793573/1111421155658199/?type=3&permPage=1

Many fans responded to the Facebook post by suggesting that the Duggars should be thinking of the victims of Hurricane Harvey, not their fun family vacations.

“Ya need to go help Houston,” wrote one fan.

“I would like to see your family help out in Houston during this time,” another commented.

There’s been no indication that any members of the Duggar family plan on hopping in one of the planes that they own and heading down to Houston to help out, but perhaps the catastrophic flooding that has left so many in need of food and shelter did inspire Derick Dillard and Jill Duggar to end their fundraiser. As one of Derick’s Twitter followers pointed out, most people are currently sending what money they can spare to those affected by Hurricane Harvey.

[Featured Image by Duggar Family/Facebook]