Ask HN: Success Using the Internet for Charity?

2 points

15 years ago

Disclaimer: This may be slightly off topic but I feel like HN has the right audience to answer my question. I broke my specific story away from the actual question because some people might not care and I am looking for any and all good answers.

Story: My brother is fighting a rare autoimmune disease known as CIDP (Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy). He hasn't responded very well to the traditional treatments however there is an adult stem cell treatment/therapy that has a very high success rate. The only problem is that since it is not approved by the FDA yet there is a good chance that the insurance company isn't going to cover the treatment which costs around 125k. (Sad because they are currently dishing out about 35-40k a month in treatments for him right now).

Question: Has anyone had any success in using the internet as a way to collect charitable donations and if so what is the most effective way to do this?

We have a gofundme account that we are using to collect pre and post treatment funds: http://www.gofundme.com/corysmallegan

Also we have done and are currently doing local fundraiser stuff but 125k is not going to come easy.

I am open to any and all ideas and appreciate any thought you give to this.

Thanks in advance!

-Ryan

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