Squishy, I think the refund option you mentioned would work out fine.

I think that the fact that a lot of this money is just sort of sitting out there in the fortifications balance is a bit of a waste. I think there should be some sort of refund option, because it's frustrating to see, what can sometimes be quite large sums of money, just sitting their either because someone was confused with the concept of fortifications donations, or just that someone accidentally put too much in. 

In fact, when I was just starting out, embarrassingly enough I thought that in order to donate money you had to do it through the HQ fortifications page. (in my defence there is a big shiney 'contribute' button and I wanted to be helpful) luckily before i put my money into the deep dark pit that you can't get your money out of, I asked a more experienced player and they showed me the error of my ways. 

But, it can, and does happen. A refund option would be swell. 

That should suffice as a deterrent for people that would be needlessly contributing money, thank you for adding that enkindle. I just tested it with a dollar in Vaticus's crew and it worked great. 

Hopefully after this is talked about and hashed out a little more fully we can have some sort of refund option, but that being a more serious game change maybe it will be best if it goes through the PC first, or at least fully sponsored. Hopefully this suggestion can get three more sponsors?