In December, you set up an AngeLink campaign for your neighbor Mark. Could you tell us about him and why you set up a campaign on his behalf?
Absolutely. Mark had a brain stroke, a brain stem stroke, and was totally disabled, incapable of doing anything on his own. He was a very active, young independent man who was about to start his own business. And this happened very suddenly and totally devastated his life, but he survived!
So we decided–because Mark is not able to work, and needs assistance with everything, basically–to raise some funds for him, mostly among close family friends.
That’s amazing that the community rallied around him! What, specifically, were the funds you raised going to?
His funds will go primarily to help him with day to day living, like groceries or medication, that the insurance may not cover. And his dog bill, somebody else is taking care of his dog, so to help support that. Also house cleaning.
Sounds like your campaign will be of great practical assistance to him. Which methods did you use to share your campaign with others? (i.e social media, phone calls, print outs, emails?)
I’ll be very honest, I’m not so high-tech and don’t use social media! I primarily used email, and sent out [my fundraiser’s] link. And I sent out a text message with the link.
How long did it take you to reach your fundraising goal?
It went fairly quickly. Almost immediately, people responded and said they wanted to contribute. We reached the goal probably within a few weeks. And it wasn’t a high goal either–I had never done a fundraiser before–but the people I approached I knew well and I knew would contribute something. But I wasn’t aware that they were going to contribute as much as they did!
That’s a great lead into this next question. How did the response from your community make you feel?
Very positive, and I feel I could probably do another fundraiser for him with a higher amount, because the response was so positive.
Were there any donations that surprised you? (i.e. was there anyone who donated whom you’d never met before, or someone you hadn’t talked to in a while?)
Not with this fundraiser, because it was limited to people I knew well. But if I do another fundraiser, I’d like to spread my wings to the public and the community.
How would you describe the overall process of using AngeLink as a crowdfunding platform?
I love it! It’s so easy. It’s intuitive. I like how you can post a photo of your fundraiser and write a little script for your campaign. And it’s easy to connect with people–and it’s free!
Thank you for your time, Fran! And thank you for choosing to use our platform as you and your community are helping out your neighbor, Mark.