Tag Archives: Cancer

GiveForward Announces Strategic Crowdfunding Partnership for Medical Bills with WhatNext

15 Aug

New Alliance Paves Way for Cancer Patients to Raise Money for Medical Bills

By Robert Hoskins

GiveForward, a crowdfunding leader helping families and friends raise money for a loved one’s medical bills, is pleased to announce a new partnership with WhatNext, an online cancer support network that connects those effected by cancer to highly relevant peers, resources and information.

GiveForward will help you change someone's world

GiveForward will help you change someone’s world

“Our mission is to ‘Create Unexpected Joy’ for families by giving them a place to rally together and support their loved ones during times of medical crisis,” said Desiree Vargas Wrigley, CEO of GiveForward. “Through this partnership, we hope to help cancer patients raise money for their medical bills while supplementing the incredible support they receive through WhatNext’s community.”

GiveForward will be an additional resource for WhatNext’s members, providing emotional support and financial education on how to raise money to meet the high cost of a cancer diagnosis.

“At WhatNext, we aim to provide our members with valuable resources during their fight against cancer,” said David Wasilewski, CEO and Founder of WhatNext. “Our constituents often ask about how to finance their treatment, and through our partnership with GiveForward we can now give them another effective option.”

According to a Duke University study, the average out-of-pocket cost for cancer patients with health insurance is $8,500 per year. This partnership comes at a time when health care is unaffordable for many Americans, and those patients and families affected by cancer now have a viable solution to substantial medical costs should they occur.

GiveForward is the leading crowdfunding site focused on helping families and friends raise money to help offset a loved one’s medical bills. Co-founded in 2008 by Desiree Vargas Wrigley and Ethan Austin, GiveForward has raised over 53 million dollars and helped thousands of families across the country. WhatNext is the premiere online community for cancer fighters, survivors and caregivers looking to connect with peers and access highly relevant resources and information.

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Start A Cure Donation-Based Crowdfunding Platform Launched to Streamline Cancer Research Donations

29 May

Upset at the Amount of Donations Actually Donated to Cancer Research, Start A Cure Lauches World’s First Crowdfunding Site Directed Entirely to Cancer Research Funding

By Robert Hoskins

Start A Cure is the world’s first patient focused research crowdfunding platform to be entirely directed at cancer. Start A Cure launched with a call to action to a small portion of our cancer researcher contacts to upload projects for funding beginning on June 1, 2013 for beta testing. Start A Cure is the crowdfunding for cancer research project created by the national patient advocacy nonprofit, Malecare, which is one of America’s largest men’s cancer support and advocacy national nonprofit corporations.

Upset at the Amount of Donations Actually Donated to Cancer Research, Start A Cure Lauches World's First Crowdfunding Site Directed Entirely to Research Funding

Upset at the Amount of Donations Actually Donated to Cancer Research, Start A Cure Lauches World’s First Crowdfunding Site Directed Entirely to Research Funding

Listening to its large cancer survivor community, Malecare learned about the large untapped pool of potential donors who want more control over where their money goes. Right or wrong, these potential donors are cynical about the way research projects are selected by government agencies and foundations for funding. They would rather choose specific projects to fund and have the opportunity to connect directly with the scientists guiding those projects. Many are also unhappy about the small percentage of donated dollars that researchers receive from government and charitable foundations. Malecare and its all-volunteer cancer survivor leadership decided to act. The emergence of crowdfunding websites, like Kickstarter and Indiegogo and pro bono finance sites such as Kiva provoked an opportunity to create a new kind of platform that both informs and empowers cancer patients and their family, friends and allies to directing their funding dollars towards research that can have meaning in their lives. Start A Cure instantly received support from the cancer researcher community. Dozens of cancer project managers from leading institutions and academic centers like Harvard, John’s Hopkins, UCLA and MD Anderson requested that their research be part of Start A Cure’s launch. By posting text and video of individual researchers and their current projects, Start A Cure raises both funds and awareness for cancer research. Donors search and browse through a menu of current research projects and choose to donate funds to projects that resonate in their own lives. By creating an efficient web based distribution system, Start A Cure is able to distribute 92% of funds raised directly to researchers, far more than any other cancer research funding scheme. Start A Cure also helps inspire students and provides hope to our cancer survivor community, by highlighting the people working night and day to develop better treatments and cures; helping us all live happier and longer lives. Projects include those that have already received foundation, government and other grants, along with projects seeking proof of concept funding. Start A Cure will quickly become the fundraising platform for all tumor types. Start A Cure is entirely complementary and supportive of the existing fundraising foundations and modalities and will only grow our cancer research capacities, worldwide.

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