February GoFundMe News

Ed. note: campaigns have not been verified for accuracy, headlines are presented as is. Donate at your own risk.

Tuesday February 28, 2017

The internet is buying a vibrator for the ‘Bachelor’ contestant who’s never had an orgasm Lavalle launched a GoFundMe with the modest goal of raising $60 to purchase Gates a Hitachi Magic Wand. Lavalle writes: Raven, don’t rely on some dude to give you your first orgasm. Knowing what you like and what makes you cum will make your future sexual experiences with men (or women, I don’t know your life) more positive. [The Daily Dot]

Monday February 27, 2017

Surf City boy uses plank-off to raise money, recruit donors for teen who needs kidney A 12-year-old boy has raised $3,000 and recruited kidney donors to help a boy he has never met get a kidney transplant. Ethan Blevins, 12, started trying to raise money for Zeb Carlyle, 17, when his dad found Zeb’s GoFundMe Page in January. Ethan decided to try to auction off his wresting belts, swords, medals and trophies to try to raise money for Zeb. Then, Ethan decided to challenge Marines at Camp Lejeune to a plank-off to try to raise more money. [WWAY]

Funeral directors face emotional burden from flood of fatal opioid overdoses Sometimes, families struggle to afford anything. “A lot of times, addiction has already had an financial impact on these families. They’ve had to put up with someone stealing and cheating to support their habit,” Biggins said. “Then, suddenly, they are gone — and there’s a funeral to pay for. That’s why you’re seeing an explosion of these GoFundMe (website) pages, people reaching out for help,” he said. “It’s not that they don’t want to help. They can’t.” [Shelbyville Daily Union]

Lake County Sheriff’s Department Rallies Around Deputy Battling Cancer “The community has come together. I have people that are giving donations through GoFundMe, through the bank, people that don’t even have any connection to Lake County, people that don’t even live here, other officers throughout the country, throughout the state, are making donations. It just goes to show you how when you’re in the blue everyone comes to you when needed the most,” said Sheriff Richard Martin. [9&10 News]

Friday February 24, 2017

Crowdfunding Is the Only Way Americans Know How to Mourn After Engineer Is Killed by Terrorist Purinton is being held on $2 million bond. So far no one has started a GoFundMe campaign for Purinton, though racists have been known to use crowdfunding tools for their own purposes in the past. [Gizmodo]

Teen Who Walked 5 Hours to Get to Work Now Drives, Thanks to GoFundMe Campaign A California teen used to walk nearly five hours to and from work every day, but thanks to the kindness of local police officers and support from their community, he can now drive the distance. [Inside Edition]

Saturday February 18, 2017

This GoFundMe Project to Get Athletes to the Special Olympics is the Best Campaign Ever This week, GoFundMe, in partnership with former and current Olympic athletes, launched nearly 500 campaigns to help get more than 2,700 Special Olympic athletes to the next winter games in Gratz, Austria March 14-25. And some high-profile action sports athletes are helping. [The Inertia]

Friday February 17, 2017

Deft or desperate? College students turn to GoFundMe to foot tuition bills Included as part of the guide are five tips for students who launch a fundraising campaign. The tips include: “Share your accomplishments and hard work,” “Add expenses as wish list items,” “Spread the word to your family and friends,” “Post frequent updates and photos” and “Show your appreciation.” [The College Fix]

Man Drives Hours Every Day In Drought To Bring Water To Wild Animals Callaway set up a GoFundMe page that has so far collected more than $18,000 from people around the world — all of it going toward Mwalua’s water delivery service. [The Dodo]

Thursday February 16, 2017

Got In? Now what? GoFundMe Posts Guidebook Utilizing Crowdfunding to Help Pay for College Tuition Just in time to plan for the upcoming academic year when tuition fees have likely increased across the US, GoFundMe’s new guidebook highlights the growing trend of college students who are turning to GoFundMe to pay for tuition and other costs associated with college. In the last three years alone, over 130,000 GoFundMes have raised $60 million from over 850,000 donations for college tuition and related expenses. [Crowdfund Insider]

This Guy Is Crowdfunding His Way To A Mar-a-Lago Membership Who is John DeVore, you ask? He’s a Brooklyn-based writer and editor, and the bona fide genius behind “Help Me Buy A Mar-a-Lago Membership” — a GoFundMe page where DeVore is attempting to raise $200,000 to cover the initiation fee for membership at Mar-a-Lago, so he can join the club and go talk some sense into the president. [Refinery29]

‘Just live’: Advice from a terminal cancer patient weeks before his wedding “When you’re given that news, and you’ve worked your whole life, and put in a lot of time into working for others … all of a sudden, it’s like, what am I going to do for myself and the people around me and the people I love to make sure that I don’t have any regrets?” he said. [CBC News]

Monday February 13, 2017

How Crowdfunding Platform GoFundMe Has Created A $3 Billion Digital Safety Net Where government can’t — or won’t — help, there’s GoFundMe, the crowdfunding platform that’s turning us all into Good Samaritans [Fast Company]

Firefighters rally around firefighter’s son diagnosed with cancer Firefighters from around Virginia are helping a young Hanover boy in the fight for his life. Three-year-old Caleb Lambert was recently diagnosed with stage 3 Neuroblastoma, according to a GoFundMe page set-up to raise money for Caleb’s family. [WTVR]

Ohio boy with incurable eye disease to see Disney World Nine-year-old Aiden Mullins has an eye disease that will one day cause him to go blind. It’s called Retinas Pigmentosa. “His eyes will gradually, slowly get worse and worse,” said Rachel Lowrie, Mullin’s mother. Before he loses his eyesight donations from people all over are helping him to see “The Happiest Place on Earth.” [WDTN]

Saturday February 11, 2017

Nearly $4K needed to help chicken with backwards foot For most people, chickens are little more than a source of protein or eggs. This story is about a little chick with a problem and people trying to help solve it. [KTRK-TV]

Donations Pour In For Muslim Foster Father Who Cares For Dying Kids A recent L.A. Times profile on Mohamed Bzeek, a 62-year-old Libyan-born American who has been caring for terminally-ill foster children for the past two decades, has been met with an outpouring of donations from across the country. [Vocativ]

Friday February 10, 2017

Transgender illegal alien SJW of color asks US to ‘gofundme’ Catalina Velasquez is an illegal alien from Colombia who also says he is a woman. Catalina claims that if he is deported to his native Colombia, he will be killed for pretending to be a woman. [American Thinker]

Donation page removed for man’s hemp oil treatment for epilepsy A McMinnville father said he was counting on money raised on GoFundMe to buy a year’s supply of treatment for his son’s epilepsy. That treatment is a cannabis oil. The father said GoFundMe has yanked down the page. [WBRC]

Struggling teen in North Bay uses donations for college, car to get to work A struggling Vallejo teen who walked to his job in Benicia, now has a car and is enrolled in college classes thanks to the kindness of strangers and a Benecia police officer who brought attention to the young man’s plight. [KTVU]