A friend of mine - not a close friend though - has a baby with down syndrome that is going to be having surgery to fix the baby's heart defect soon. The family also has 3 other kids (between 10 and 2). I believe that the family does not have much extra money. I would like to help the family - maybe set up a online fund raising effort for them. But not sure how to go about this. I don't want to add any more stress to this family or embarras them. But at the same time I am feeling that they could use some help and would like to help.
How would you broach this with the mom? Or would you ? I have not been asked to help. Should I just worry about doing something individually for them?
At minimum I would like to send a card with some money to help with parking costs while the baby is in the hospital. I have already volunteered in response to their FB post to assist with childcare of the older kids while parents are at the hospital with baby. What would you do?
giveforward.com is specifically for medical fundraising. It is very easy to use, but you will need to consult the family to get it set up
I don't know how to set up an online fundraiser but we did just do a fundraiser for our local PTO and got pretty good results. We did a gently used fall/winter clothing, toy and equipment sale. We sent home fliers looking for "donations" for the sale. The PTO would sent out "tags" marked with their identifying number. The seller gets to select their own selling price and tag the item. We had set up at the school in the gym on Friday. Then Saturday was the big sale. When the shoppers were done shopping, they would come to our checkout station. We would de-tag the items and ring them up and collect the payment. Once the sale was over for the day, we separated the tags by number and added up the total $$ that person made on their sold items. The seller got 50% of the profit and the other 50% went to the PTO. We did quite well. So..... with decent advertisement for the event, you could probably do pretty well and raise a nice chunk of $$ for the family.
Good luck & thank you! It's because of people like you that give hope to the human race. :)
We are currently working on a fundraising effort to help a beautiful soul.... just 26yo & battling Stage 4b Hodgkins. She has insurance. She has a wonderfully supportive husband. & she has a multitude of family & friends praying.
But bills add up. I know this after 20 straight years of medical with my own family. Soooo, here's what we're doing to help this wonderful young lady: thru Facebook, she's setup a page dedicated to her journey/battle with Hodgkins. She posts everything on this page to spread the word quicker. (when my son was going thru medical issues, we used caringbridge & were very happy with it.)
We formed a Fundraising Committee. We picked a date & planned a "BBQ, Karaoke, & Silent Auction". Because we live in a small town, the community's efforts to help have been humbling. All of the food has been donated. All of the drinks & paper supplies, too. The karaoke services have been donated....& the hall. Wow!
Thru the committee's efforts, we have gathered such an excellent lineup of donations for the auction. Local/small town stores, caring individuals, & even big-box names (Lowes, Michaels, etc)....& our local car dealership have all willingly donated to the auction! We're still 2 weeks from the Benefit date.....& I can't wait to see all of the donations all lined up ready to sell!
We've also ordered thru wrist-band.com. I ordered a basic, debossed, single color bracelet....& by ordering 100, you get another 100 free. The cost ended up being about 33cents each....& we're selling them for $3 each. The original cost (with shipping) came from a donation specifically to order the bracelets. End result $600 raised at zero cost for the committee!
My next project is ordering a glass votive candleholder with a lavendar votive. Total cost 80cents each....& we'll be selling them as "prayer candles" the night of the Benefit. I think we're going to sell them at $3-4 each....not sure yet.
I also looked into t-shirts. For the cost of $5/shirt, we could raise $$. Last year, I ordered a fundraiser t-shirt & paid $20 for it. Lots of possibilities there!
Hope all of this helps! & kudos to you for wanting to help. We lost our daughter 20 years during her 2nd day of heart surgery.....& yes, the cost is astounding....even down to daily living-at-the-hospital costs. Oh, & if you plan a fundraiser....be sure to use FB for events!
You can definitely set up a website so that families can donate. I don't know how to do it, but I have donated for many people like that before. I know that caringbridge.com is a popular site BUT people have to be careful and donate specifically for your child or the money goes to a general fund and the family will never see it.
A friend of mine recently did a lemonade stand to raise money for a neighbor whose child has cancer. They advertised it well through the neighborhood and school, plus facebook and personal calls, and raised a lot of money. Now, they have found several local restaurants to have fundraising nights where they donate a portion of the night's sales to the family/organization.
Not to minimize things but with the help of God that baby will be home before you know it. Having worked in pediatric surgery, I found out these little ones are incredibly resilient and do so much better than adults. As adults, we complain a lot.
That being said, assuming they have insurance, what they need is Childcare for the other kids, meals for now and when they come home.
Maybe do some grocery shopping so when they come home that is not something they have to worry about. It is the e dry day things that always need to be taken care of. Maybe some e tra cash for parking, although, hospitals usually have special permits for patients that will be there for a couple of weeks, cash for lunch for Mom and Dad, extra gas money.
If they do not have insurance you may want to rea h out to the community they your local fire dept. before you embark on public fundraising, check with the family first. Some people like to keep things private.
www.gofundme.com
This is a legitimate crowdfunding "donation" site.
You might also look into the Ronald McDonald House.
Or the family should.
If they have one in their area.
But as you said, this is not a "close" friend of yours.
So it will all be awkward... for you to ask them about all of this.
When a child is in the hospital, the hospital typically... gives the parents a parking pass. Validated. They don't have to pay.
At least, this has been the case whenever we have had direct family, in the hospital.
And I would hope that per their Facebook post, that the parents do get childcare "help"... from people who are, really honorable people and have a clean background. ie: not weirdos.
I mean, do they not have relatives, that can babysit/do childcare for them while they are at the hospital?
I personally would NOT just "trust" anyone who responded to a FaceBook post to watch my own kids. Unless, I KNOW them, fully.
Gofundme or ask the hospital
Call the mom and ask what she needs. Our middle son had his 3rd open heart surgery 8 weeks ago--out of state. I have several friends call and ask what we needed/how they could help. Our insurance paid for airline travel and housing. We were only out of pocket for some meals. We stayed close to the hospital, so we didn't have a car/parking issues. People offered babysitting and meals for our other children, but they went to stay with my husband's parents (which was ideal!). So, ask first. If she doesn't give any good ideas, you could always do a Visa Gift Card. It is very kind of you to want to help. She will definitely appreciate it!
Ask if they're staying at a Ronald MacDonald House. Many children's hospitals have a RMH or similar for the families. Many of these places also provide occasional meals.
I just read Patty K's message and she's right! Our little guy had a 9+ hour open heart surgery and was discharged after 9 days in the hospital. We were prepared to stay for 3-4 weeks! Little kids are amazing!!
