Dr. Shirley McGreal, head of the International Primate Protection League (IPPL), had allowed IPPL's co-sponsorship of the letter only to help the Digit Fund and blames the misunderstanding on Fossey being taken advantage of in the wake of her gorillas' deaths and never viewing the gorillas' deaths as a way for her to personally profit. McGreal volunteered to serve as secretary-treasurer in the wake of McIlvaine's resignation from the post. Through the seeming partnership of AWLF/Digit Fund, funds contributed to the Digit Fund by philanthropist Gordon Hanes and by students under the supervision of primatologist Geza Teleki came under the auspices of AWLF, not the Digit Fund. The US ambassador to Rwanda submitted a proposal in 1980 for Karisoke Research Center to be removed from Fossey's control and placed under a mountain gorilla consortium led by AWLF while Fossey was in America finishing her book.