Go fund me

[Livingonhopex]

Long term lurker, NC.
With today's current economic climate, would you donate a tiny amount to a crowd fund which specifically was aiming to raise funds for a deposit for a flat? Small amount, high volume type raiser?

I feel like I'm smacking my head off a brick wall trying to save for a deposit and it's laughable I'm even asking this question because it's ridiculous but I'm just curious about people's opinions of this type of thing?

Thanks

Nope. I can think of a billion and one charitable causes that are more deserving.

Nobody ever asks me to gofund anything for them. I think I may have a fuck-off kind of face.

No definitely not. I hate go fund me

Well that is unless it was for a very good cause

The worst ever gofundme was that bonkers couple from Brighton who wanted people to fund their move to Costa Rica. I think they raised £250 of the £20k they were hoping for.

OP - no I won't contribute to your flat.

JigglyTuff I remember that! They went on Good Morning or something to promote it? And most of the £250 was from one family member?

Why did Good Morning indulge their nonsense by giving them airtime??

Irrelevant, really; but how come all this specialist treatment can only be accessed in America? Aren't British doctors trained to the same level?

It is nothing to do with how doctors are trained. Some treatments are only available in the US because the NHS will not fund those programs as they are too expensive. Other treatments are still in the experimental trial stages at US universities and haven't been approved for use in the UK.

No. A friend of mine was once in a dire situation in a foreign country with a physically/verbally/financially abusive man and couldn't afford a ticket home; a few of us persuaded her to set up a gofundme for that (she was embarrassed and felt 'undeserving' as he had undermined her confidence so much) and she met and exceeded the target, got home safely and is now healing. I didn't think twice about giving to that, but a lot of the 'causes' I see going around are absolute shite. People are so brazen about asking for free money for non-essential things that everyone else just has to save up for.

Well no, I wouldn't, but it's worth a try setting up a page I guess?! I was very lucky to have my mum help out with my first deposit without which I wouldn't have been able to buy for years, so I haven't a leg to stand on in judging anyone else needing help.

But clearly the US doctors aren't "funding" them either, when people try to crowdfund upwards of £1m?

mmm why shouldn't a group of self published writers be crowd funded if people crowd fund them?
They have to pay for a book to be published and marketed...maybe would be better than some crap book that has a legit publisher.
Crowdfunding is a popular means of supporting whateverthefuck you want to put up there.
pay or don't -

Can i ask a sub question? On the subject on crowd funding. Ds was born unwell and no doctors knew what was wrong but he continued to get worse.we looked into private where he would get tested intil a cause was found more quickly (Portland hospital) but its was very dear me and dh thought about crowd funding to pay for it. What would people think of that?
Hes getting better know we found the cause btw

My friend set up a go fund page my daughter ( life limiting illness ) and has had a terrible time.
At the time she had just got out of icu from severe sepsis after a 18 month stay in hospital.
I never wanted a go fund me but she did it for her and raised i think just under 1000 pound but I also received messages of hatred like horrible stuff.
I was using my daughter to make money and exploiting her etc
Yet a girl in the same hospital who now has the all clear but had a more well known illness raised over 200,000 pound with out question.

I vowed to never ask for help again.

Flogging No the US doctors aren't funding them, that's why they need the crowdfunding. Some treatments are so experimental they are only available in one place in the world. If people are desperate for that treatment they have to go to that place, and if it is in the US and they are British they are unlikely to have health insurance that will cover the cost. US health insurance won't cover truly experimental treatments so there are plenty of US gofundmes too.

*pennypickle Craziest one I saw was a group of self-published 'authors' crowdfunding an anthology. What was the money for? To pay them a "salary" while they wrote it.

I don't know why the fuck they think they deserve to be paid a wage for writing when most of the real authors with books in Waterstones still have day jobs*

Bloody ridiculous isn't it? Where did all these entitled people come from?

I hope nobody was stupid enough to contribute

I do donate to go fund me pages thougu when they are legit I find it very sad when I see like recently ...2 little boys both needed life saving treatment one raised over 2 mill that was needed and the other made 1k of 500,000 needed he died before he could fund the treatment.
I still prefer the donating directly to causes than donating to big charities and I never donate to a charity that is based on one illness.

Ps4widow Yours is a different case. The OP can survive even though he/she does not own a house. People can survive without that trip to Asia, or walking to Machu Pichu. Someone with a serious illness who can be cured, but the cure is expensive, shouldn't feel bad about crowd funding treatment.

I live in the US so sadly I am used to reading stories about people dying because they couldn't afford medical treatment.

Flogging No the US doctors aren't funding them, that's why they need the crowdfunding. Some treatments are so experimental they are only available in one place in the world. If people are desperate for that treatment they have to go to that place, and if it is in the US and they are British they are unlikely to have health insurance that will cover the cost. US health insurance won't cover truly experimental treatments so there are plenty of US gofundmes too

Exactly this. Some people seem to think everyone gets medical services free of charge. There's a huge difference between a life and death situation of a child than someone who needs to gain a deposit for a house.....Jeez!

No. I see crowd funding as being a great resource for people in really desperate situations and where help from strangers can make an incredible difference to their lives rather than being for people to use to get the things they want with little to no effort on their own part.

Of course not. It's your problem to sort, nobody else's.

My question was simply why do only American doctors appear to be offering these services, actually . As in, why not pay for the treatment in the U.K.

Some people will never be able to afford a house no matter how hard they work or how hard they save.

People like me. I wouldn't in a million years think of asking strangers to help me buy a house. It doesn't even come onto my list-of-worthy-causes.

mmm why shouldn't a group of self published writers be crowd funded if people crowd fund them?
They have to pay for a book to be published and marketed.

They might be crappy writers with an over inflated sense of self worth? I know someone like this. Tried to flog their book, no one was interested so she decided to put it on Kindle for a few pounds in order to raise the money (fair enough) She sold 3 copies. Muggins here wanted to help so I got one. It was bad.

Not a hope in hell from me.

I've just been sent a link to a "crowdfunding" page set up by 2 of my family members. Where they are waggling the barely cold corpse of somebody they profess to love .... for the sake of profit.

It's all worded very emotively, and the word funeral is bandied about. So I can see why people might assume it's for a good cause. Except I am aware of a large purchase being planned on the back of the money coming in. it. A very non-coffin related purchase.. They have no need to spend the incoming donations on funeral items, becuase that set of expenses has already been taken care of via other channels.

Having seen up close and personal (while contemplating the somewhat "pond scum" nature of my gene pool) the degree to which the case presented and the reality behind it bear no resemblance to each other, hell will freeze over before I ever donate to one.

I understand what some people have said about it being begging, but I think it is potentially one step further than that. My family are actively grifting on it. They've never been trail blazers, so I strongly suspect they are far from alone in exploiting the concept in this manner.

The site admin don't want to know. They have a policy of not vetting any campaigns. Preferring to "leave it to potential doners to do their own evaluation" before giving. God knows how members of the gen. pub. are supposed to do that when there is no realistic avenue for them to validate claims made about the stated intensions for funds raised, and how they actually get spent.

Well intentioned idea when the concept first made waves. But since it appeared to have evolved as "non fact checked," free for all I suppose it was inevitable that it would be descended upon in droves by people who saw how ripe it was for exploitation, manipulation and profit.

It's a shame because... shit happens. Life rain can be very thundery and a concept like crowdfunding has the potential to be an elegant and effective way of putting together people in unexpected need, and a large number of people looking for a way to make a small contribution, that in a collective effort makes a big difference to real lives and real pain.

But I guess the fact checking required to make sure only genuine cases got the nod to be published would very expensive. If it works on the basis of skimming a percentage of donations a huge number of requests that raise at least part of their target must be required to make it a viable ... business ?