Ginevra Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Does anyone know if there is any sort of safeguard or escrow that causes the money donated to a Go Fund Me or Kickstarter to definitely be used for the specified purpose? So if someone has a Go Fund Me that is for the purpose of paying the medical bills from a serious accident or for adopting a child, is there any way of being certain the money can and will only be applicable to that purpose? Or is it just an open account that the applicant could use to go to Disney or have their teeth professionally whitened? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs_JWM Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 No, as far as I know, there's no safeguard. There was a case locally where a lot of money was donated to a family whose mother died after giving birth to fragile, premature twins. The father had various financial problems and essentially embezzled most of the money, lost custody of the babies, and was sued by his wife's parents who adopted the babies and needed the money for medical expenses. It was a mess. Donate to people you know and trust, or donate with the understanding that the money may be used for anything. Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 No, as far as I know, there's no safeguard. There was a case locally where a lot of money was donated to a family whose mother died after giving birth to fragile, premature twins. The father had various financial problems and essentially embezzled most of the money, lost custody of the babies, and was sued by his wife's parents who adopted the babies and needed the money for medical expenses. It was a mess. Donate to people you know and trust, or donate with the understanding that the money may be used for anything. Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk Agree with all of this. If you contribute to either you are pretty much handing over the money to their discretion. No guarantees. Kickstarter (which I am less familiar with) might have more contractual end because aren't you usually receiving something in return? However gofundme is akin to handing money to the needy person at the corner. You have no clue what's actually going to happen to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Well, that's disappointing. Sort of understandable, because I don't know quite how it could be regulated, but still a shame. Makes me consider how generous I'm willing to be for a situation where I am inclined to be pretty generous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 (edited) Nope. I investigated this when one was started for a dear friend who had huge medical bills and a self-employed husband who couldn't work for several months while he was recovering. Not that I don't trust them, but the whole thing made me think. There are indeed some issues that have come up with people who really didn't have the situation presented or who used the funds for something. The other issue is that those websites take out a percentage. There have been times where I knew that a friend had large medical bills at a particular hospital or were behind in their utilities, and I went and paid their bill directly because I wanted to make sure it went to that. That's also anonymous. Because of privacy issues, they won't tell you how much they owe, but you can suggest an amount, and they can say if that's less than what they owe. At least that's my experience. Or if I know the person well, I send a check directly to them. That's what I did for the friend I mentioned. I knew that they had no income coming in other than a little part-time work that the wife had. Edited January 10, 2017 by G5052 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joules Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 It's just an electronic version of passing the hat or giving money to your sob-story second cousin. You really have no idea what happens to the cash. If I give, I give with that knowledge and accept it. For Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/terms-of-use Kickstarter provides a funding platform for creative projects. When a creator posts a project on Kickstarter, they’re inviting other people to form a contract with them. Anyone who backs a project is accepting the creator’s offer, and forming that contract. Kickstarter is not a part of this contract — the contract is a direct legal agreement between creators and their backers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 I only give to GoFundMe if I personally know and trust the person/people involved. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 (edited) Modest Needs or Kiva are more regulated. Not regulated by law, but in terms of having checks and balances in place, and in the case of Kiva, repayment required over time. Edited January 10, 2017 by Carol in Cal. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonderchica Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 We have fundraised for a family member's organ transplant through Help Hope Live for this exact reason. The family wanted no question of what the funds were used for. HHL only does organ transplant and other catastrophic illness fundraising and can only reimburse you out of your funds for medical expenses. They have a working relationship with most transplant hospitals. Your transplant coordinator has to verify your transplant and financial need. The family sends them bills or receipts to be reimbursed. It can include medical bills, copays, lodging, travel, etc. I think it can cover home utilities in some circumstances. The website was convenient for out of town folks. Most close by preferred to give directly via check as they wanted the funds to be used for any need of the family. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Nope. We did one for when my kids' team got to the globals competition for their activity. It was very expensive and unlike school based teams we didn't have a fundraising base or institutional money to draw from. I absolutely gathered the funds, had the kids draw pretty thank you pictures for each person, and then distributed the money evenly among the families to reimburse for the big costs we all paid to go. But presumably I could have pulled a complete scam and they'd have no way to know. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 I only give to GoFundMe if I personally know and trust the person/people involved. I'll do one degree of separation - like, someone I know well and they're posting it saying, "This is my cousin/best friend from childhood/nice neighbor" I might give a little. But nothing beyond that. No, "This story is so sad!" or "I read about this family in such and such article!" No way. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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