Donation-based Crowdfunding: Begging?

[R8Steve]

Oakey said:

This one popped up in our local rag recently;

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1925363981/wo...

Successful, profitable business (by their own admission, it's in the description) wants to expand and open new premises. Starts up kickstarter to fund it, fails to reach goal, pockets £6500 anyway. Complete and utter madness.

Just looks like free advertising to me? Actually quite a good idea when you think about it.

Pledge £20 or more

Lite Lunch Bite for 2
Chinese tea, coffee, juice & lunch dish for two

So £20 for lunch and coffee for 2, seems not a bad deal really.

[Ari]

There was one on my local Facebook 'Spotted' (where else?) recently. Someone's gran had died whilst in a home. Her son (the poster's father) had been living in the house. Because gran had died, the house had to be sold to fund gran's care whilst in the home. But they house was a complete tip because poor old gran couldn't maintain it, and they wanted £400 to do it up so it would sell for more and there would be some inheritance left so the dad could go and rent a place.

Two issues with this - firstly, if the dad was living there, why couldn't he have looked after the place? Secondly, a quick stalky look at the poster's Facebook page showed her wonderful trip to Disneyland in Florida (where else?) six months ago - funded by her dad!

FFS.

[Shakermaker]

R8Steve said:

Oakey said:

This one popped up in our local rag recently;

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1925363981/wo...

Successful, profitable business (by their own admission, it's in the description) wants to expand and open new premises. Starts up kickstarter to fund it, fails to reach goal, pockets £6500 anyway. Complete and utter madness.

Just looks like free advertising to me? Actually quite a good idea when you think about it.

Pledge £20 or more

Lite Lunch Bite for 2
Chinese tea, coffee, juice & lunch dish for two

So £20 for lunch and coffee for 2, seems not a bad deal really.

They don't get the money if it doesn't reach its target

From the Kickstarter website FAQs for backers

"If the project you’re backing is successfully funded, your card will be charged when the project reaches its funding deadline. If the project does not reach its funding goal, your card is never charged.
Some backers may see a temporary authorization of funds at the time of pledging, before a project has been successfully funded. Authorizations generally drop after a few days, but this process can vary depending on your financial institution. If you notice an authorization that doesn’t drop, we recommend that you contact your bank for more details about their authorization procedure."

[Oakey]

R8Steve said:

Just looks like free advertising to me? Actually quite a good idea when you think about it.

Pledge £20 or more

Lite Lunch Bite for 2
Chinese tea, coffee, juice & lunch dish for two

So £20 for lunch and coffee for 2, seems not a bad deal really.

Yeah you might be right, they don't get the money because they didn't reach their goal? At least that's what Kickstarters FAQ claims. So they get a bit of free advertising, nobody loses out (unliek GoFundMe?)

[Ari]

Incredible person selflessly wears out car rescuing those caught in bad weather and now needs our help to get it back on the road.

https://www.gofundme.com/snow-joke-4x4-rescue-need...

[thenortherner]

I've only donated once to a GFM cause.

There was a story on the local news about the death of a father and the family not being able to afford the funeral cost. The family looked genuinely hard up, but not spongers. It featured three young kids going from house to house with a bucket and sponge, washing cars for a quid in an attempt to contribute towards the funeral costs.

No idea if I'd been 'had' by it and the feature on how the kids were raising money was stage managed to get a response like mine. No doubt the dad should have paid into life insurance, but that said, not exactly the kids fault that he didn't.

[FN2TypeR]

[g3org3y]

FN2TypeR said:

Have another.

[Saleen836]

Ari said:

There was one on my local Facebook 'Spotted' (where else?) recently. Someone's gran had died whilst in a home. Her son (the poster's father) had been living in the house. Because gran had died, the house had to be sold to fund gran's care whilst in the home. But they house was a complete tip because poor old gran couldn't maintain it, and they wanted £400 to do it up so it would sell for more and there would be some inheritance left so the dad could go and rent a place.

Two issues with this - firstly, if the dad was living there, why couldn't he have looked after the place? Secondly, a quick stalky look at the poster's Facebook page showed her wonderful trip to Disneyland in Florida (where else?) six months ago - funded by her dad!

FFS.

Things like this pop up a lot on my local 'spotted' last one was for a family who lost everything in a house fire and due to financial hardship didn't have insurance, no one was hurt in the fire though as they were away on holiday when it happened!

[KingNothing]

Ari said:

Incredible person selflessly wears out car rescuing those caught in bad weather and now needs our help to get it back on the road.

https://www.gofundme.com/snow-joke-4x4-rescue-need...

Good that the lions share of the money raised so far was donated by someone with the same surname. Good screw that, set up a go fund me with a lowish goal, get a few people sucked in then get your wife or partner to donate an amount to push you over the post and enable to access to the other peoples money.

[davek_964]

Ari said:

Incredible person selflessly wears out car rescuing those caught in bad weather and now needs our help to get it back on the road.

https://www.gofundme.com/snow-joke-4x4-rescue-need...

In 2016 I did a charity event in the car (take people around a track). It wasn't a great weekend - on the Saturday I span, hit a landing light and put a major crack in the rear bumper. On the Sunday, a coolant hose blew.

I wish I'd realised that my selfless action over the weekend meant that I could beg and get somebody else to pay for the repairs!

[RB Will]

What annoys me more than the actual gofundme is the people getting involved and sharing it asking others to contribute.

A recent one was looking for a sum of cash to help out the wife and children of a chap who had been killed (thought this is what life insurance is for?). People writing emotional statements about how nice he was and how he was a good mate etc The only people I had seen sharing it were very well off people who wouldn't even notice the full amount go missing let alone a contribution. If they cared that much just give them the bloody money! Don't ask all us poor people to give up what little we have.

Similarly with the one for Billy monger, any one of the hundreds of racing related people that made a big deal about it could have just sorted it for him but instead just slapped a sticker on the car / helmet to guilt us lot into paying.

[captain_cynic]

jdw100 said:

We get this quite a bit where I live.

Usually it's Australian tourists who have had an accident but (despite being on holiday) didn't bother with travel insurance.

Faced with a bill for £10,000 for medical treatment and to get them an air ambulance home they go on these donation sites.

And feck knows its hammered into them enough in Australia... If you cant afford travel insurance, you cant afford to travel. Literally that on big signs at the airport and I believe there's even been a TV advertising campaign.

But that's Bogans for you (Bogan == Australian word for Chav and/or Council). These are people who think that spending $400 on a fake branded bags and penis shaped bottle openers in Bali is a good idea, but spending $40 on potentially life saving insurance is just a rort.

And insurance in Australia is highly regulated, unlike here. Refusal to honour claims for petty reasons are met with very stern faced judges who have very sharp teeth.

[br d]

Private Eye have had the "Eye Want" column on the back pages for years. People saying stuff like "Need a hundred grand urgently, thanks"
I've often wondered if any eccentric zillionaires have ever just wired over the money for a laugh.

[Zetec-S]

br d said:

Private Eye have had the "Eye Want" column on the back pages for years. People saying stuff like "Need a hundred grand urgently, thanks"
I've often wondered if any eccentric zillionaires have ever just wired over the money for a laugh.

I was discussing something along these lines a few years ago with a few mates in the pub. If I was eccentric and rich then I'd open a bank account and deposit a small amount of money (say £500). I'd then give random people a signed, blank cheque and tell them to write in whatever amount they want. If the cheque doesn't bounce then keep the money. Maybe an interesting social experiment to see how greedy people are. Could be adapted to these gofundme campaigns?

[Glassman]

"People are actually donating to a crowdfunding campaign to help Kylie Jenner become a billionaire"

https://www.indy100.com/article/kylie-jenner-billi...

[cheshiredj7]

This popped up on my Facebook feed a few days ago

https://www.gofundme.com/i-am-sean

Lancashire based photographer wants to tour the country taking pictures along the way. Has poor credit so can’t get finance for a caravan nor bigger car to tow it, suddenly becomes our problem to help fund his holiday and buy him a bigger car

[Glassman]

cheshiredj7 said:

This popped up on my Facebook feed a few days ago

https://www.gofundme.com/i-am-sean

Lancashire based photographer wants to tour the country taking pictures along the way. Has poor credit so can’t get finance for a caravan nor bigger car to tow it, suddenly becomes our problem to help fund his holiday and buy him a bigger car

During a period of financial uncertainty (allegedly) he still managed to father a further four kids? Am I reading that bit right?

[HorneyMX5]

There was a guy I follow in social media who had a MK3 MX5. He had a couple of thousand followers and thought of himself as a bit of a celeb.

He crashed his MX5 all on his own while presumably out on a hoon. Some of us have been there and learnt that lesson. He wasn't sure if he was covered on his insurance and was therefore straight on social media with a GoFundMe page looking to raise £5K for a new car so he could continue to provide content for his followers. He got an absolute pasting in the MX5 community. Turns out he was insured and all money was returned, he now drives a Nissan.

[GIYess]

Had an old school mate look me up and we met up for a coffee one day. Anyway he spent the whole day complaining how he had been so ill etc but didn't say what with. Next thing I get a FB note from him asking me to donate to his GoFundMe page.

When I read into it, the lad had been to NHS doctors, told he had ME or something, but decided he didn't have it but some other strange illness which required him to fly to Italy and go private for testing. He was looking to raise £30,000 to do this!! I sent him a swift email saying he was probably waisting his money and if he thought he had a wrong diagnosis, to keep at the doctors/MS charity (as they will know what they are talking about) to investigate further instead of paying £30k for some unknown Italian company to do unknown tests for an unknown illness.

Chancer!