The use of "go fund me" these days is a bit like online begging

[BlackGirlAndRobin]

I get that its used for a lot of good, which is great, and I've readily supported friends in the past who were raising funds for charity etc. But recently I've seen some rather dubious fundraising attempts which have left me thinking

The one I've just seen is for a "homeless" soldier who has had his bedsit broken into. The thieves took his "Apple Mac" laptop which had precious photos of his time as a soldier. This person has raised over £800 so far.

Other one I saw was a guy who wasn't eligible for a maintenance style grant to study away from home. So was asking for help to pay for his accommodation.

I'm being cynical unreasonable, aren't I? Obviously each to their own and all that.

Paul, they didnt need any money for medical costs - it was all covered by their insurance!!

I had a request for funding for someone who was trying to set up a bagel company. I don't mind helping people in genuine need or good causes but not for bloody bagels. If they can't get a loan from the bank or other investors then ther emust be something amiss with their business plan.

They started asking for money and saying the insurance probably wouldn't pay, within a day or so of fax being born.

The insurance company had given no indication they wouldn't. They were simply doing the paperwork.

All expenses were paid by the insurance. They were given an apartment by the charity.

The asked for a load of money for a breast pump, again it was provided by the charity.

They didn't need any of the money. And people asking for it back were publicly abused.

It was a huge scam.

I don't really see the problem. Yes it's begging, some for good causes, others less so. But you don't have to give. You don't even have to look. A real case of 'donor beware'.

wonder what is reasonable to ask for funding with. i guess maybe if there has been a house fire and lots of things have been destroyed. or maybe someone has been in an accident and there is something for it that the money needs raising for. i would think they would reasonable things to ask for funding/help.

That's what insurance is for. It should only cost a few ££s a month.

Wow. I remember thinking they were jumping the gun with the GoFundMe before the insurance was decided. I knew insurance came through but I didn't realise it covered everything. I can't believe they were reported to the police!

I saw one recently of someone who had died on holiday and they wanted money to fly the body home. That is exactly what insurance is for. Local papers were promoting it too

I think there is far too much of an assumption these days that if you choose to be reckless and spend your money on the fun things, rather than insurance, then you can just ask strangers to pick up the cost of your mistakes.

Micah "I'm particularly wary of the knee jerk fundraising for medical costs on diagnosis. In the uk most costs will be covered. So the 10 grand raised for "treatment abroad" or whatever is pretty much 10 grand in someone's pocket."

I think that is a little unfair. There are cancer treatments available abroad that are not available in the UK but are proven. I helped raised money for a local boy who had neuroblastoma cancer. At the time, a very effective trial was only available in the US. It did eventually come to the UK. Lovely little boy is a bigger one now, cancer free and doing well.

I saw an interview with a young woman who did this to fund her post grad studies. She got what she needed. But interestingly, she was saying that she wished all donators could have a tag attached which enabled her to contact them afterwards. She is earning very good money now and would like to pay it all back over the next few years but there isn't a way to contact them. She says she's managed to pay back a few after they contacted her through her update but she's been advised not to publicly ask donors to contact her as she will likely get thousands saying they did when they didn't.

I really liked the idea that all these people helped her when she needed it and now she's in a position to pay it back and that's what she wants to do.

Reminded me of the "Transfinancial" guy

Shirtsleeves In principle, I agree. I have donated money towards a medical treatment in the US, one which was routinely offered there (i.e. not considered experimental) but not here (although is being considered, and so it should be). I researched the procedure and was happy it would very likely be useful. Critically, I had a personal relationship with the mother of the patient (not close, but enough - a good friend's sister, had met her a couple of times). I'm not sure I would have donated otherwise.

However, there are people who fundraise for 'experimental' treatment, 'shown to be clinically useless' treatment, and sadly, for treatment that may actually be harmful. These are often sold to donors as 'bastard UK NHS won't fund this but pioneer Dr XYZ will treat me and I'll be cured'. They neglect to mention that Dr XYZ bought his medical degree online and is working out of a prefab in Kentucky. Perhaps the patient doesn't recognise the futility?

Shirtsleeves- if a treatment abroad is deemed necessary by the NHS, they can, and do, fund it.

I'd bet vast majority of money raised for "treatment abroad" is never used for that purpose. The NHS is actually pretty up there with cancer (most areas, in fact, we have some leading clinical research going on) treatment, and as I said, proven treatment like proton therapy that until recently was unavailable here was NHS funded abroad.

There is still no requirement for the money to be spent on the advertised purpose though. Parents could simply decide they don't actually want little johnny to have his treatment abroad, they'd rather have a new car.

I'd rather give the money to a registered charity where the funds meet the same end, but there is regulation over money raised.

I agree there's too much of it.
A girl I was briefly friends with set up a just giving page once and it was in the local paper, asking for money so she and her 2 daughters could stay in a hotel near the hospital her boyfriend was in.. Did he have a life threatening illness? on his death bed? no he had a broken leg

I remember another. A man had an illness locally and I read his story and did feel awful for him. He had a wife and 2 children and set up a page because he knew he didn't have long and wanted to be able to leave them some money. Sadly he did recently pass away but his wife used the money to buy a new car. I guess the money could be used on anything but personally I would have bought a 2nd hand car and saved the rest.

I agree with you 100%. Some people are so shameless and entitled about it. I've had three separate friends beg for cash for their wedding reception (they'd already paid for the honeymoon in Hawaii themselves), a car and a tattoo respectively. It's ridiculous.

Micah your post is quite ignorant. Many children with certain forms if cancer would benefit from treatment in the US. However as the odds of success are often around 40 %, the NHS don't view it as a good use of money.
If your child had a 40% chance of survival , I imagine you would do anything you could to raise that money.

Yes. Someone I know launched a crowd sourcing campaign to pay for her visa application etc when wanting to stay in the country she's travelled to because she was pregnant and wanted to stay with the baby's father (there was a slightly post about how her legs would part and her waters would flow). She got the money and I could kind of see why her close friends and family would want to help her out. Now she wants to self-publish a book so that's the next crowd sourcing project. It's getting a bit much now.

Private eye anyone?

I wasn't really talking about the legitimate fundraising but rather ones that are seemingly a little shady.

But of course it's human nature to want to help especially when you hear a sob story. If GFM Itself gets a cut of the funds raised so there not bothered by the false representation that are on their site. Just a bit at some of the stories. And quite rightly people should demand their money back if they'd donated.

I went to Uni with somebody who started a page to 'raise funds' to buy her new cheerleading outfit. She always had money to go out drinking several times a week tho!

Micah your post is quite ignorant. Many children with certain forms if cancer would benefit from treatment in the US. However as the odds of success are often around 40 %, the NHS don't view it as a good use of money.
If your child had a 40% chance of survival , I imagine you would do anything you could to raise that money

Can you back up your 40% statistics? 40% is very high and I don't think I've come across a case where a treatment with that success rate wouldn't be considered.

I did not say there weren't deserving cases. I didn't say the NHS fund everything. I said it's often a knee jerk reaction- person is diagnosed with cancer, immediate go-fund me set up because people think "treatment abroad" is somehow better, more experimental.

I said many of the funding streams won't be used for the said treatment abroad. Most of the ones I come across and follow aren't. Some simply because sadly the child becomes too ill too travel. I have never been able to find out where the money goes- like Dax's fund. Except in one case where the parents used the money to set up an amazing charity which benefits many children.

My point was there is nothing to regulate these funds. There is no regulation over "treatment"- as pp said it's often pseudo scientific alternative therapy from someone who qualified on the internet.

Some of these funds raise huge amounts of money. People think it's the same as donating to charity, its not. If that makes me ignorant, fine.

Micah I know a child who had a forty percent chance of survival. They had stage four neuroblastoma. Sadly they died before they were able to travel to the US. I can't " back it up" as it would involve linking to a personal Facebook page. It was a recently as early this year and they raised funds via Go Fund Me. The money has now all been donated in full to a local hospice and a children's cancer charity.

The problem with the 'treatment abroad' stuff is that there is no regulation of that treatment, what it might be or how effective it is. It could potentially be a quack snake oil salesman. People donating are unlikely to be given the full info, and desperate parents can be sold a lie.

I fully agree that the NHS would fund cancer treatments for children with a success rate of 40%, we actually fund things with much poorer success rates than that.

The thing is, each circumstance is individual, each child or adult has a differing chance of success depending on their circumstances. And unless you are that child's parents who are present in meetings with their clinical team then you don't really know the complexities of the situation.