GoFundMe: Three Bizarre Ways To Use It

BreakingModern — When William Anderson, Jr., learned he had a kidney disease called FSGS, his determination kicked in. After countless medical tests and years of managing his disease, he reached the point that he needed a kidney to move forward. Ready to tackle the challenge, his wife set up a GoFundMe campaign. The couple has a goal of $10,000 to offset the registration fee for MatchingDonors.com and medical costs not covered by insurance.

GoFundMe

“The ability to transparently and easily allow donors to track progress and support our request with minimal management is critical to us in a time of uncertainty,” says Anderson.

Anderson is just one of many who have turned to GoFundMe to raise funds for medical crises. The service utilizes the power of crowdsourcing to help raise funds for everything from home fires to overseas mission trips for churches. But the ability to bring people together to support each other isn’t limited to helping with big causes. In fact, there are a few unique ways that individuals are using GoFundMe to help each other out in ways they wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do.

Proms

GoFundMe has become a great resource for schools to raise money to host a memorable prom for students. However, the site has also attracted campaigns asking people to donate to teen girls’ prom dress funds. As with weddings, a campaign that has a story attached to it will likely garner more donations, but prom dress campaigns can also allow relatives to pitch in to help a young girl get her dream dress.

GoFundMe

Weddings

GoFundMe’s Weddings and Honeymoons section is filled with campaigns for dream weddings and honeymoons. Many of these fundraisers are attached to touching stories about couples having survived medical traumas or great adversity.

However, this isn’t always the case. Young brides have turned to the site to ask for donations toward a big wedding when they have no sob story at all. While this may upset some people, having a funding page allows a bride’s friends and family to chip in if they’d like and even if a bride raises only a few hundred dollars, that’s a few hundred less she’ll have to pay off once the wedding is over.

Birthday Parties

The site invites members to use its Celebrations and Special Events section to raise money for baby showers, birthday parties and other events. If you’re planning a big party with a large invite list, a GoFundMe campaign can be a great way to gather funds to put together a party to remember. Many members also use the site to raise funds for a big birthday gift, inviting friends and family to pitch in.

Through GoFundMe friends, family members and entire communities can come together to help a person or organization. While the platform is designed to help those suffering through dire circumstances, they can also help people gain support for the happiest moments in their lives. In some cases, members are even using the site to combine fundraising with big events like birthdays, donating all proceeds to a personal favorite charity.

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First/Featured Image Credit: © Kletr / Dollar Photo Club

Second Image Credit: Photographer. Licensed under CC0 Public Domain

Stephanie Faris

Author: Stephanie Faris

Stephanie Faris is the Simon & Schuster author of two middle grade novels, 25 Roses and 30 Days of No Gossip, as well as the upcoming Piper Morgan chapter book series. A graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, she worked in information systems for 13 years. Her work is regularly featured on a wide variety of blogs and websites, both under her own name and as a ghostwriter. She lives in Nashville with her husband, Neil.

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