Have you/would you do a Go Fund Me

[maxiesmom]

Pet costs. I am always baffled when someone jumps into pet ownership and has no idea what that first year is going to cost. Crazy irresponsible IMO. I also wonder that the owners have no idea what the monthly costs are, for cats or dogs. I adopted two adult cats, and one is older than what the rescue was told. I know I am looking at vet bills X 2 as they age, but I have already calculated that amount into my "unexpected" costs. So far my Figaro has been to the vet twice for issues, and it turns out my furry friend has allergies to something.

As far as pet costs go, I am about the unluckiest person you will find when it comes to their pets. I won't go into all the sad details, but I haven't had a dog live to double digits. Still, when the first trip to the emergency vet this year was over $1000, it was a shock. And of course my car decided to give up that very same month. So very quickly I went from feeling, yeah, I'm doing pretty good now, to oh no now I'm stressed about money and budget.

 

[Skywalker]

I haven't donated to one, probably never will. It seems to be the thing to do nowadays though, the minute something tragic or unexpected happens, someone expects you to take out your wallet. I don't get it. Begging used to be shameful, I guess it's mainstream now but I still think it's ridiculous. I have personally known 2 people that had them.

1. Was basically crowdfunding for her education. No thanks if I had to take out student loans and work multiple jobs, why exactly am I paying for YOUR education?
2. Family friend started one for a family where there was a death. It was tragic but, these people had no out of pocket expenses and great insurance so why is the money for exactly?

People have previously managed to live without begging, why is it so necessary now?

 

[mnrose]

Pet costs. I am always baffled when someone jumps into pet ownership and has no idea what that first year is going to cost. Crazy irresponsible IMO. I also wonder that the owners have no idea what the monthly costs are, for cats or dogs. I adopted two adult cats, and one is older than what the rescue was told. I know I am looking at vet bills X 2 as they age, but I have already calculated that amount into my "unexpected" costs. So far my Figaro has been to the vet twice for issues, and it turns out my furry friend has allergies to something.

Sort of like the facebook posts I see on my town's local page. "Need 3 BR, 2BA rental, under (insanely low price). Have 3 dogs and 2 cats. Can't afford much." Oh my heck. Every single time I want to post....why do you have PETS? Good grief. Pets are very expensive. I know everyone likes animals (as do I), but if you can't "afford" much, have ONE pet, not 5!

 

[happily single]

So I have a confession. My children’s father passed away unexpectedly about 4 years ago. His sister whom I have no relationship with started a Go Fund Me for his funeral. Her listing was sickening. All she talked about her HER. her brother died. Her brother had been ill, etc. absolutely zero mention of his children that he loved and they loved him. Ohh, and I was the “next of kin”. I was the one in charge of the arrangements. So in a childish move I created my own Go Fund Me which was beautifully written about his life with his kids. I then privately messaged every family member/friend and told them NOT to contribute. I didn’t do it for the money, I did it to correct her. Btw, she raised $40, and I didn’t see a cent of that.

 

[Feralpeg]

I have never set one up and I can't imagine ever doing so. However, I won't judge people who set them up to cover catastrophic medical issues. Although I have very good medical insurance, I still paid close to $20k out of pocket when I had cancer. Not everyone is able to do something like that. The insurance paid $187k.

 

[Nancyg56]

As far as pet costs go, I am about the unluckiest person you will find when it comes to their pets. I won't go into all the sad details, but I haven't had a dog live to double digits. Still, when the first trip to the emergency vet this year was over $1000, it was a shock. And of course my car decided to give up that very same month. So very quickly I went from feeling, yeah, I'm doing pretty good now, to oh no now I'm stressed about money and budget.

Oh. I het it. My Buster tore his ACL. I did not even know cats had ACL's! WE paid for his surgery and canceled the hardscaping we had planned for the front yard. I could not do both and he was the priority. I will say my DH was shaking his head the entire time. I told him Buster coudl not live that way so we needed ot make a hard decision. At 8 there really was no decision but my DH who was raised on a farm with barn cats did say it was a good thing he liked that little boy!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I would donate but not for what I think most people would consider minor things or things that are just more of a personal responsibility issues.

Honestly the ones that kinda irk me are the lost possessions ones. Either due to theft, fire, etc. It's not that I don't think we should all help out because I do but often it's because the people lack proper insurance. I know we all fall on hard times though and dropped insurance for lack of funds so I can't say it's a blanket no way thing but it still irks me.

I can see donating for vet bills when it's a case of taking in a stray or animal continuously passed over for adoption or a terrible tragedy when the pet needs extensive medical assistance like a prosthetic limb, wheelchair, etc but normal vet bills probably not. Maybe a cancer diagnosis or something like that where we all know it can be so expensive and it's not for really about the owner trying to hit up peeps for money.

 

[elphaba91]

I’ve never done one, but have actually considered it in the last few weeks for medical treatment only available overseas that could save my life and potentially give me a significantly better quality of life than treatments available here. Ultimately that won’t be necessary, as if it is shown to be a better option then I can receive government funding for it (I can’t express how grateful I am for universal health care!).

I know someone who did do a Go Fund Me for a cancer treatment that wasn’t subsidised and would have cost $100,000, but was her only chance at survival. I didn’t know her at the time, but that is the sort of thing I would donate to.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I've only ever donated to one. It was for a student at the school where I teach. Most of the kids at my school are very poor and this girl got invited to attend a fairly prestigious Science summer program because of her test scores. It was close to $1000. Her mom set up a GoFundMe and I donated to it. She was able to raise enough to go to the camp. The student then journaled everything they did at the camp and printed everyone out a copy who donated to her fund. I thought that was really sweet.

A teacher at my school has one right now because her husband needs a surgery and their out of pocket is expected to me about $15,000. I would have gladly donated if she hadn't bought a new Lexus SUV about 3 months ago.

 

[ronandannette]

I’ve never done one, but have actually considered it in the last few weeks for medical treatment only available overseas that could save my life and potentially give me a significantly better quality of life than treatments available here. Ultimately that won’t be necessary, as if it is shown to be a better option then I can receive government funding for it (I can’t express how grateful I am for universal health care!).

I know someone who did do a Go Fund Me for a cancer treatment that wasn’t subsidised and would have cost $100,000, but was her only chance at survival. I didn’t know her at the time, but that is the sort of thing I would donate to.

Our dear friend that did so took a huge gamble - and didn’t win. Those of us that contributed were happy to do so but the treatments (in Vienna, Austria) were to no avail. They ended up mortgaging their house to the tune of over $100K to pay to have him brought back to Canada by private air-ambulance so he could die at home. There was no effort to try and raise donations for that because they knew everyone had already given everything we had to give for the initial attempt.

 

[RangerPooh]

I wouldn't set one up as I don;t see the need to. Now if there was some devastating event that happened I might change my mind, but no guarantees even then.

I think there are too many scammers out there who set up accounts as a way to get money. I have seen people share links for GFM that are ridiculous. And yes, I will be judgy. Don't tell me you need money to pay the rent and then brag on your social media about the new clothes you bought, your nails, and hair that cost gobs of money.

This said, there are a number that are legitimate and I might donate to those. But I'm going to be selective as where I choose to donate.

 

[smiths02]

If it's someone we know well enough to want to support, we definitely just give them cash directly, even in the few cases there has been an on-line fund set up. We give to a lot of people for a lot of things but not just random GFM's. If there's a large-scale tragedy (local, national or even globally) a legit charity (Red Cross, United Way, Salvation Army etc.) usually sets up a fund to collect donations for relief and we do give to those when we feel it's appropriate.

I have a problem with the publicity of it all to an extent. A coworker's husband was battling cancer. We did a collection of money and gift cards at work. Turns out, my DH indirectly knew the husband battling cancer and felt the desire to donate to the GFM page. He also felt obligated for his donation to be known because other coworkers would see. Anyhow, we ended up donating more to GFM and some to the collection at my work. I was upset that GFM and credit card companies got a cut when handing the family cash would have been better.

DH also constantly gets asked to donate to coworkers who get sick, injured, or die. Not to be a jerk, but I *know* that these people have access to great health insurance and life insurance. I'm sure extra money is nice, but it won't be the difference between life and death or financial ruin. The obligation to donate is big, though.

 

[DLgal]

I find them in very poor taste, for the most part. The majority of the ones I've seen are cases where I say "that's what insurance is for." Things like house fires, car accidents, sudden death of the breadwinner, etc. I will absolutely donate GOODS to someone who is in need, but handing over money is something I'm not comfortable with in these types of situations.

There was a recent situation where a neighbor went on our neighborhood Facebook page to share the sob story of a family with 6 children who had been evicted from their rental home and are now living in a shelter. The dad has Type 2 diabetes, allegedly "cannot work" and the mom got laid off because she was missing too much work due to taking care of her kids. The story was full of excuses as to why the dad had not yet applied for disability, and was unable to make it to doctor appointments (no car) and the mom apparently cannot find a job because she has to take care of everyone. The GFM campaign was trying to raise money to get them back in a rental home and buy them a car. First of all, they wanted to come back and live in the same neighborhood, where rental homes go for about $3500-4000/month (it's a very expensive city, but there are several neighboring cities that are much less expensive). They already have a car, but wanted a second one so dad can get to appointments while mom works. We have public transit here, FWIW. This whole campaign was set up because the neighbor's 2 kids are "best friends" with two of this family's kids. The whole thing rubs me the wrong way. Like, this family doesn't want to give up their high standard of living so won't move elsewhere, and why does Type 2 diabetes mean that a dad can't watch his own kids before and after school so mom can work? And why is a couple who supposedly were both "professionals" not better prepared financially for this situation? They were living in a VERY nice home for several years and now find themselves in a shelter, which is admittedly terrible, but I feel like they would have had to be pretty irresponsible in the past to end up in this situation. I was happy to donate a bag of my boys old clothes since they asked for that as well, but I did not donate a penny to the GFM. Many people did, though, and have raised 15k of a 20k goal. The whole story is peppered with "this tragic situation could happen to anyone at any time" and I'm sitting over here thinking not so much, if you are a responsible adult.

 

[elphaba91]

Our dear friend that did so took a huge gamble - and didn’t win. Those of us that contributed were happy to do so but the treatments (in Vienna, Austria) were to no avail. They ended up mortgaging their house to the tune of over $100K to pay to have him brought back to Canada by private air-ambulance so he could die at home. There was no effort to try and raise donations for that because they knew everyone had already given everything we had to give for the initial attempt.

My situation is a bit different. The treatment in question is proton therapy (vs normal radiation), so not anything particularly experimental, just not available here (until next year - just my luck!). The main benefit would be to avoid excessive radiation to healthy tissue. It’s extremely early days with the process but I believe the first step is comparing the proposed treatment and extent of radiation for each.

Really, my gamble is more in deciding whether to do further treatment or not. There’s a possibility that everything could be totally fine without any sort of radiation, but if it’s not it could kill me. Whereas radiation therapy will have pretty severe side effects for the rest of my life, but could also save it. Proton therapy would hopefully be less of a gamble - treatment without as extreme side effects!

 

[KPeterso]

Have never set one up and would never do so.

I have given to only 1 GFM ever. It was about a year ago. My friend's nephew had a recurrence of his Neuroblastoma, and the family was having issues with the insurance approving for them to go to NY to Sloan Kettering or San Frnacisco to UCSF for second opinions or other possible treatment options. The family also needed to make some updates to their house to add stronger HEPA filters and to make it as clean an environment for him to live and heal. They did finally get the insurance to pay for SF, but it was pretty much too late at that point - he went for the consult and could not try the available treatment option for about 2-3 weeks and in that time turned terminal and passed away 2 days before he was to start that treatment. It was just a heart breaking situation in so many ways.

 

[Scifidiner]

At the rate prices are increasing, I'm thinking about setting one up for our next WDW vacation...

 

[lifesavacation]

I have never set one up and I can't imagine ever doing so. However, I won't judge people who set them up to cover catastrophic medical issues. Although I have very good medical insurance, I still paid close to $20k out of pocket when I had cancer. Not everyone is able to do something like that. The insurance paid $187k.

I’m glad you posted this. My sister’s little boy was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 3. They had insurance. Contrary to what was mentioned by a PP, they were not living outside their means. Like a lot of families, they were living paycheck to paycheck. With the cancer expenses, they couldn’t afford to live. They lost their house and their cars. They had to file for bankruptcy. Their church community helped them get back on their feet. The Ronald McDonald Foundation gave them a place to stay near the hospital during the many surgeries and treatments that spanned multiple years. Make A Wish donated as well. I doubt my sister would have done a go fund me since she didn’t care about losing any of her material things (cancer has a way of realigning priorities), but she was hugely grateful to everyone who showed her kindness and provided help during those horrible few years.

 

[wgeo]

Personally I have a hard time even letting my kids fundraise for school trips because I feel bad asking other people to fund something that is essentially a vacation for my kids. So no, I wouldn't be able to set one up for any reason.

I'm not offended when people set them up, I may think they're foolish, or asking for foolish things, but I just don't donate. In the limited cases I've seen, the people asking for foolish things never get much money, so it's all a wash.

In terms of donating - I've never given to one because the only time I would trust it enough is if I was close enough to the family to know the situation. And if I'm that close, I'm just giving them an envelope, gift cards or my time and help directly.

 

[MrsDuck]

Yes, I set up one for a teacher who passed away at school. It was tragic; she had a stroke on the toilet on the last day of school. She left behind a daughter and the money went to her funeral costs and daughter.

 

[RedAngie]

I've never donated to a GoFundMe, but I can't say I never will. But only if it's for what <<I>> consider a worthy reason.

Only twice have I received a request, and both times they were for superfluous matters. One was to send someone's daughter to cheer leading camp, and the other from a person who had tickets to Lollapalooza in Chicago but needed help with transportation and lodging costs.