LIMA — When people ask Erin Hicks how they can help her sister’s son, she points to her GoFundMe page.
The website GoFundMe allows users to create pages for their cause, asking viewers to donate money for medical, personal, educational and many other causes.
GoFundMe is just a piece of the puzzle in a much larger crowdfunding trend.
Other crowdfunding sites include Indiegogo, KickStarter, teespring, Patreon and others.
Jackson Hollar, Hicks’ nephew, was born in March. He was recently diagnosed with neuroblastoma and is undergoing chemotherapy at the Ohio State Medical Center in Columbus.
Neuroblastoma is a form of cancer that forms around immature nerve cells in various areas of the body.
Hicks, a Lima resident, created a GoFundMe page to help cover expenses, to give Jackson’s mother some financial stability.
To get the news of his disease “was pretty devastating,” Hicks said.
“He’s been in and out of the hospital for the past month … this kind of turned [Jackson’s parents] lives around,” she said.
After some research, Hicks decided the GoFundMe page would be the best option for Jackson’s cause.
“Family kept asking how they could help and I said, ‘here’s your opportunity’,” she said.
More than $1 billion has been raised through GoFundMe’s 10 million users within four years in the U.S.
In 2014, $147,747,040 was raised for medical-related causes, according to data provided by the organization.
Though the page does charge a five-percent fee, and an additional processing fee on every dollar, Hicks said she didn’t mind the fees in the end, because the donations are needed, regardless.
As of Thursday, the page has raised just under $900 by 23 people in 15 days.
Many donations are anonymous, Hicks said.
“We’ve had donations from people who I don’t even know who they are,” she said.
The use of GoFundMe “can be used in a really good way,” she said.
In Lima, Tina Zimmerman also reached out to the community via the Internet to support her friend’s daughter, Amelia Griffin, who has neuroblastoma.
Zimmerman said by using the website, she’s found out just how much the community wants to lend a virtual helping hand.
“People really do care, people really do help,” she said.
“The lowest donation we’ve gotten was $10 and the largest was $1,000,” she said, adding that 30 people had donated within five days of her creation of the page.
“I would recommend [GoFundMe] to anyone … everything seems legit and it’s so easy to use,” Zimmerman said, adding that the account took about five to 10 minutes to set up.
As of Thursday, the has raised just under $3,000 for medical and travel expenses for the Griffin family and has been shared 206 times since its inception.
