The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: englishteacheralex on December 01, 2016, 12:32:13 PM
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A family I know suffered a terrible misfortune on Thanksgiving--they were camping and the dad was making a turkey in a deep fat fryer that blew over and covered him with burns. Kind of a freak accident, but anyway, I want to give to their campaign.
The problem I'm having is that I inspected Go Fund Me's website and the fees seem high/bothersome. From what I gather it's 8% per donation?!?
We know the family personally; is there any reason we shouldn't just write them a check or give them an envelope of cash? 8% fees seem crazy to me. I've never given to a Go Fund Me campaign before; am I missing some great benefit of giving a donation through them?
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Don't think so, other than your gift might inspire others to give. Some people are weird about contributing to something that looks like it's a "failure," so if they aren't getting much of a response, I would consider going through the website. But if the campaign is doing OK and I knew the family personally, I would probably just write them a check (assuming also that they would be OK with that avenue). Sorry to hear about their troubles. What a crappy way to end a holiday.
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Best off just writing them a check. 100% goes to them.
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Their story has started "trending" and they've already raised $27k; I think we'll just write them a check.
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This is probably horribly heartless of me, but when I see stuff like this, I think, 'don't they have health insurance?'
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It's not the health insurance, it's the lack of income while he recovers. They're a family of five and the wife is a SAHM.
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We had some very non mustachian friends lately face some very tragic circumstances. We donated 10 bucks to the gofundme and posted a response saying "we would be sending a check to avoid the 8 percent fee". We hoped that others might see this and realize how high these fees were.
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It's not the health insurance, it's the lack of income while he recovers. They're a family of five and the wife is a SAHM.
Thanks for explaining. I guess not everyone has disability/accident insurance provided by their employer. That's unfortunate for them to be in such a situation; I hope he has a quick recovery.
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Yep, there's a fee. Just give the folks a check.
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No, you're not missing anything. Give them a check so they get ALL the money you want to give.
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Tricky... I have donated money through a Go Fund Me campaign and I will have to say the advantage is others tend to also want to help. More so when you back them.
For example you donate $25 to their cause then write up a quick blurb and repost on your facebook.... sparks one other person to donate $25 (100% gain).... 8% aside the advantage is increased crowdsourcing, you donating (legitimizing), and social networking.
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Give the check, share the campaign on your social networks.
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I set up a go fund me for a friend with cancer. They took a sizeable chunk and it was painful to see $100 donation turn into $91
The up side is that it is easy to donate with a credit card, and that makes people comfortable.
I always told people to send a check if they could, but many seemed to prefer to use the go fund me.
Your bank might be willing to set up a "for the benefit of" kind of account for people to donate to I think you just need an EIN
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In similar situations, I've asked for a mailing address and mailed the check.
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Did no one else think of the corn baller from Arrested Development? Just me?
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We had some very non mustachian friends lately face some very tragic circumstances. We donated 10 bucks to the gofundme and posted a response saying "we would be sending a check to avoid the 8 percent fee". We hoped that others might see this and realize how high these fees were.
This is a fantastic idea! My sister made a page for a friend in need.* I forwarded it to a few friends and one of them made a completely unexpected $500 donation! However, he called me and sent a check directly to avoid the fee. (He's a pre-Pete mustachian, btw. His many tenants just think he's the handyman. I met him volunteering at the library, lol.)
*Gonna brag on my sister a bit: she organized a rummage sale that netted $5k before she set up the GFM page.
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It's not the health insurance, it's the lack of income while he recovers. They're a family of five and the wife is a SAHM.
Thanks for explaining. I guess not everyone has disability/accident insurance provided by their employer. That's unfortunate for them to be in such a situation; I hope he has a quick recovery.
Right? And burns are pretty terrible injuries; it could easily be life-altering. This sounds pretty horrible.