In an amazing show of support for the Boston Marathon victims OneFundBoston.org nears $50 Million in private donations!

An unprecedented flood of 
donations has pushed The One Fund Boston to a whopping $47 million and growing, with the deadline for marathon bombing victims to apply for the tax-free cash just two days away.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a charitable fund, funded entirely by private donations, that matches this,” One Fund administrator Kenneth R. Feinberg told the Herald yesterday.

So far, Feinberg’s office has 
received 125 applications for One Fund money. He’s confident that 
everyone who deserves that boost will get at least some of it.

“All of the families who have lost a loved one, the double amputees and the single amputees, they’ve all either filed, or we’ve talked to them personally, and they’ll be filing this week,” he said, adding that by Saturday night’s filing deadline, he will have “captured everybody.”

Feinberg and his team will start deciding next week how much 
money each victim should receive.

The families of 8-year-old Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, 29, and Lingzi Lu, 23, who all died in the blasts, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, 26, who was gunned down days later, allegedly by the accused bombers, will receive “well in excess” of $1 million, he said.

Amputees and a person whose brain was damaged in the blasts will receive $1 million, too, he added.

For others, he’ll need to consider hospital stays in the financial relief calculation. “We may say, ‘Those hospitalized the longest, $250,000. Those hospitalized two weeks, $125,000,’ ” he said.

Of the remaining 50 or so people
whose bombing-related injuries didn’t require hospitalization, he said, “that’s Category D. Who knows, $5,000 or $10,000, tax free?”

Internal Revenue Service charity rules require that Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino approve Feinberg’s One Fund recommendations. After that happens, on or about 
July 1, fund overseers at Bank of America will cut the checks.

Feinberg also is encouraging bombing victims to secure the help of a professional money manager.

“The handling of the money, it worries me a great deal,” Feinberg said. “We’re telling everyone who wants it, we’ll get them free help.”

Therese Nicklas, a certified 
financial planner with U.S. Wealth Management in Braintree, said she’d urge One Fund recipients, espec­ially those whose injuries will make 
returning to work difficult, to stick to the household budget they had before they were hurt.

“If you’ve had your income compromised, you’ve got to understand that this money is a replacement for that income, and you’ve got to treat it that way, and give yourself a salary,” she said.

The fund will not, however, go to help anyone suffering psych­ological trauma, due to lack of money.

But, that could change in the future as the fund remains open.