Crowdfunding - Experiences? Advice?

I am planning to start a donation drive to send a special group of kids to camp for 2 weeks in August. Looking to raise about 35K. Anyone have advice/experience? Might use Youcaring.com as the conduit for FB and similar. They don't keep a percentage nor take a fee. Not sure how they fund their platform.

Oh, come on! I can't be the first/only SOMAPY person to do this, right? I was sure my peeps would come through. PM if you wish but I imagine other folks are curious about the experience as well. I promise I'll share more down the road, once I've got it up and running.

I've never used one of those services, so I have no advice, but I do suggest you choose one that accepts PayPal. A lot of my giving takes place when I see an appeal on Facebook. If the cause accepts PayPal, I'll send off a contribution, but if I have to get up and get my credit card out of my purse and type the number into a web page on my phone, it's probably not going to happen. I'll scroll on and forget about it.

Also, I favor PayPal because all of my contributions are listed on the site at the end of the year for tax purposes.

post a fake campaign to protect Betty White and get a lot of money...someone really did that in 2016...it was protect her from 2016 at a point when a lot of celebs are passing.....

most of these things fail...you need to have a very rich social network to get that kind of money..or hope it goes viral..which rarely happens...

I have seen Go Fund Me campaigns for causes like helping pay medical bills for an ill child or funeral bills for someone from the community raise an impressive amounts of money. On the other hand, I have contributed twice to other causes that raised only a small amount of cash It seems to be human nature to contribute when there is an urgency.............other causes with a different sort of appeal to the public raise little.

Go fund me charges a fee for their service (a percentage of the take).  This may be why the OP is considering a different fund raising site.

joan_crystal said:

Go fund me charges a fee for their service (a percentage of the take). This may be why the OP is considering a different fund raising site.

The principal remains the same whatever the funding vehicle. People will contribute to urgent causes but not so to something they consider optional

A better route might be to work with the camp directly. If children are in need, they might be willing to slash or comp camp expenses.they should also consider applying to be part of the Fresh Air program. $35k is a lot of $ for camp.

It seems to work pretty well. A young woman mentioned on facebook that there was a workshop she wanted to attend but couldn't afford to. I told her if she started a crowdfunding campaign, I'd be the first contributor. She did, I was, and it worked, and she was able to attend.

Your request is too vague.Donors want to know more of the story - How many children,why are they special, where is the camp,etc. Go fund me seems to be the most used.

Years ago I volunteered at camps for kids with cancer, sickle cell disease and hiv/aids. It was amazingly good for the kids to have an experience like this with their peers. Other kids who had been through similar difficulties. Kids with amputations and bald heads and radiation scars, etc. Some kids used the time away from family to really talk about their experiences. Others just appreciated being one of the crowd instead of the object of curiosity or ignorance. I envision this camp being similar to that experience and I may volunteer in August.

I have not written the request yet, galileo. I was asking for info about the process and experience with resources.

kthnry, good advice. I find the paypal option makes it easier to consider a donation as well.

A nonprofit does the camp on a shoestring budget. They manage to serve about 70 NJ kids in the 5-17 age range. Many of the kids have special needs due to having lived through wars and the capricious violence and loss that accompanies war as well as losing family/friends/teachers/etc. Many are just learning to speak English. I think 35K is a bargain for an ambitious and supportive project like this. The 2 week residential camp provides ESL and a range of services for the population along with the traditional swimming, hiking, etc.

Tom, what a sweet story! And just like you!

I'll give you all a heads-up after I get started.

Nakaille........I know you are not looking for a pat on the back, but this some times nasty world is made better by people like you. Do your thing and Tom and I will race to be the first to contribute

Thanks, author (and Tom.)  I'm glad to see that part of you out front. That's more the spirit I was hoping to arouse.

galileo said:

Your request is too vague.Donors want to know more of the story - How many children,why are they special, where is the camp,etc. Go fund me seems to be the most used.

I strongly agree with this; a story that inspires a strong empathic response can go viral very, very quickly. When my son was injured in a terrorist attack in Israel, my friend created a gofundme campaign called "Help Me Send Jake's Mom to Israel". She had me write a brief personal statement, and included a picture of him in a hospital bed. It raised more than $6000 in a matter of hours.

If you can feature some nonidentifying profiles/pictures of the kids without running afoul of HIPAA, that will be very effective.

Best of luck!

This looks useful

https://www.amazon.com/exec/ob...

founder of crowdera lives in Maplewood -- message me, I can put you in touch /p

Thanks, Pete! Looks like another great resource and I love that the founder is local! I'll PM.