GoFundMe Just Promoted Six Tips for Cancer Patients Raising Money
At a time when 60 percent of all bankruptcies each year are caused in part by medical bills, more and more people are looking for alternative ways to pay for their health care. Enter crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe. Between 2010 and 2017, the company raised $5 billion through its campaigns—and roughly one third all the site's fundraisers are for medical bills. An estimated 250,000 campaigns for medical bills go up annually, and a search for the word "cancer" turns up grand total of 3,266,000 results.
In a statement to GQ earlier this year, a spokesperson for the company wrote, "A crowdfunding platform can not and should not be a solution to complex, systemic problems that must be solved with meaningful public policy. We believe that affordable access to comprehensive health care is a right, and action must be taken at the local, state, and federal levels of government to make this a reality for all Americans. But in the meantime, we will continue to work hard to provide a place where Americans can help one another during times of need."
Not everyone gets the funding they need though. A large part of that is algorithmic—the more donations you get, the more likely other people are to find your campaign and donate. But the reverse is also true, so you need a baseline of social media savviness if you want to, say, survive chemotherapy. To help achieve that baseline, GoFundMe has published an explainer titled, "Six Cancer Fundraising Tips to Help You Raise More Money," meant to "help you find financial relief so you can focus on your health." It joins at least one earlier post on medical fundraising, "How to Get Insulin When You Can’t Afford It: Six Ideas."
The tips are relatively straightforward—like "Be transparent about your financial needs"—and they're no doubt helpful for someone struggling to figure out where to start. Some, like appointing a close friend or family member to manage the money and account while you get treatment, are extremely useful. And "Post frequent updates" is standard social media manager fare:
Sharing any news or progress on your fundraiser will keep supporters engaged and encourage continued support. Share the highs and lows of treatment or recovery in your fundraiser updates. Your supporters want to know what you’re going through, whether it’s good or challenging. Feel free to get creative with your update messages using videos or images. Having an event? Try using one of our fundraising ideas for cancer patients.
Other tips are harder to tackle, like "Write a compelling fundraiser story." Without that, without finding some way to tug hard enough on a stranger's heartstrings, it's unlikely that any given campaign will get fully funded. Health care activist Ady Barkan, who is coping with a fatal amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, diagnosis, condemned the widespread need for medical GoFundMes in a testimony delivered to Congress in April. "We are cobbling together the money from friends and family and supporters all over the country," he said. "But this is an absurd way to run a health-care system. GoFundMe is a terrible substitute for smart Congressional action."
For every viral story of fundraising for healthcare, there are thousands of medical campaigns that don't get funded.
Originally Appeared on GQ
