There’s little we love more than helping people fundraise for medical expenses, but if I had to choose a close second favorite, hearing people’s success stories would definitely be it! 

Recently, Kim R. told us about her positive experience with GiveForward and I’m honored to share it with you guys. 
 
Kim came to GiveForward to help raise money for her friend Chris’s medical expenses.  She credits a lot of her success to the fundraising tips and tricks that we offer to our users: “Once my page for my friend Chris was posted, Ethan sent me a very nice e-mail of encouragement. He offered my friend some very valuable resources, gave us fundraising tips and put our page as a featured fundraiser. It was most definitely the personal touch.”
 
Kim also told us of the multiple ways in which people reached out to help: “Some people donated online at GiveForward, some paid utility bills directly and others sent cash and checks. We were all so struck by the generosity. It is so touching when utter strangers reach out and give to someone they don’t know.” 
 
Kim admits that had she not discovered GiveForward, she does not know where she would have started in her attempts to help her friend.  She stresses that GiveForward “legitimatized” her fundraiser, that it was easy to spread the word about it through email and on sites such as Facebook, and that taking credit card donations furthered the ways in which she could help her friend.
 
We are so glad that Kim had a positive experience and was able to help her friend Chris.  Hopefully there will be many more of these stories to come, and we can’t wait to hear them!

Woohoo!! GiveForward’s founders Desiree and Ethan were recently featured as “Everyday Heroes” on the Friends Like Us blog!  Check out the blog post here.

Friends Like Us is an organization dedicated to helping children with cancer and their families with emotional and financial support through various resources.  We are delighted to have them as partners but more importantly, we’re grateful to have friends like them!

GiveForward was recently spotlighted on PBS for our part in helping people raise money for medical costs.  Last night GiveForward founders Desiree Vargas and Ethan Austin were featured on Chicago Tonight.  Phil Ponce sat down with Desiree and Ethan to discuss the creation of GiveForward and to address GiveFoward’s role as it relates to the recent healthcare reform.  To view the video, please click here.  

Chicago Tonight is a nightly program featuring local news and national issues and broadcast on WTTW, a PBS station.

When a friend or loved one gets sick and is facing huge medical bills, the quickest and easiest way to raise money for them is through an online fundraising page.  Before getting started, however, it’s critically important to come up with an organized fundraising plan.

Since we know that most people raising money for their loved one’s medical expenses may be fundraising for the first time, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you by creating a step-by-step plan that will make it super-easy for you to reach your fundraising goal.  If you are about to start a fundraising page for a friend or loved one, please take the next 15 minutes to read through the plan — trust us, it will make a HUGE difference in the success of your fundraiser.

Step 1:  Build a Fundraising Team to Help Spread the Word

If you are thinking of raising money for a loved one, before you get started ask a few of your mutual friends if they would be want to help in the efforts to spread the word. With the assistance of a few friends all sending emails and Facebook messages out to their different networks your team will be able to reach out to 4-5 times as many potential donors as you could by yourself.

As the team leader or team captain, you will, of course, still be responsible for drafting the emails and coordinating the efforts, but your team members will be able to help you in spreading the word to a wider group of people.

Note — If you cannot get a group of friends to help with the efforts, don’t worry about it.  Creating a team of friends is definitely helpful, but is not absolutely necessary to be successful.

Step 2: Kick Off  Your GiveForward Fundraiser With a Donation From Yourself

Getting off to a good start is the single greatest thing you can do to make sure you reach your goal.

If you can afford to do so, the first thing you are going to want to do is set the tone for your fundraiser by donating yourself. Donate as much as you can afford, as this will show people how important this effort is to you and will set the tone for the rest of the fundraiser — if you set the tone by donating a large amount, others will do the same. read more…

The ORIGINAL Lemonade Stand with founder and leading saleswoman, Alex Scott

We are proud to announce our new ‘Cause of the Quarter’ is dedicated to fighting childhood cancer.  As the leading cause of death by disease in those under the age of 15, Pediatric Cancer is an area of medical research that needs to work harder than most to find cures.

The recipient for our Cause of the Quarter is Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. Not only was this amazing organization started by someone diagnosed with cancer, it was started by a 4 year old diagnosed with neuroblastoma who went on to raise $2,000 at one lemonade stand in her own front yard.  Kind of makes you wonder what you were doing at 4 years old, because I know I wasn’t inspiring a life changing and insanely influential organization that is dedicated to curing childhood cancer. I was making mud pies.  Hopefully Alex Scott’s story motivates us all to put this cause on our radar and to give back to a cause that is truly deserving.

We are so proud to support them for all the other resources they provide to cancer patients, their families, and everyone in the community who has been touched by childhood cancer.  From assisting with travel and lodging expenses while receiving treatments, to providing the support and information that families need in order to cope within a community who cares.  And mark your calendars for Lemonade Days, in honor of  the first weekend Alex Scott created her very first lemonade stand.  To read more about ALSF, head on our to our Cause of the Quarter page.  So here’s to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation: Fighting Childhood Cancer, One Cup at a Time.  We raise our plastic cups to you!

Receiving a cancer diagnosis is a scary time, but we’ve come to accept it more at a certain point in our lives.  But what about being a twenty or thirty something who receives the unnerving diagnosis of cancer?  Being so young with such a serious condition can be an isolating time.  With her book  Everything Changes: The Insider’s Guide to Cancer in Your 20s and 30s, Kairol Rosenthal has made strides in unmasking the young people that are living with cancer.

Kairol was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at the age of 27.  Two years after her diagnosis, she realized that things such as “death, parenting, pain management, and career goals” were among the topics her twenty and thirty-something peers were unwilling to discuss.  Not willing to let the emotions and fears of young cancer patients like herself go unsaid, she set out to write her book and interview those going through similar situations as her.  Discussing topics unique to twenty and thirty year olds, Kairol has explored a side of cancer that oftentimes is ignored. 

Aside from her book, Kairol writes a blog, providing another great resource for young cancer patients.  Her honest, straightforward writing is relatable to the age group in which she writes for, making her one of the leading voices for those who get cancer in their twenties or thirties.    

On her blog, Kairol also talks about the delicate issue of money with regards to a cancer diagnosis.  We were thrilled to find out that she recently wrote about GiveForward as a financial resource for young people battling cancer.  (Read the full entry here).  As a young person, the diagnosis can be doubly scary because of the cost of treatment.  Savings are minimal or nonexistent, and then there can be the issue of student loans or a variety of other factors that inhibit saving or obtaining money.  This is where GiveForward, with the help of Kairol initiating the conversation money, can help these young patients.  Together, we can hopefully end the taboo that surrounds the discussion of medical costs.

You can read more from Kairol on her blog, Everything Changes.

President and co-founder Desiree Vargas was recently interviewed on GoodNewsBroadcast discussing GiveForward.  GoodNewsBroadcast strives to highlight people who have a “positive, constructive, impact on society” and we’re proud to fall into that category!  Further, they pride themselves on offering unedited, unbiased reporting. 

Click on the video below to hear all about why and how Desiree started GiveForward.  (I will warn you– the video itself is not that compelling, but the discussion certainly is!)

Barbara Talisman, President of Talisman Associates, Inc., a consulting firm for nonprofits, highlights GiveForward’s recent million dollar mark achievement on her blog.  Barbara has vast experience in fundraising from teaching workshops to giving speeches and publishing articles.  Her articles have been featured in Fundraising Success, Fundraising Institute, and Advancing Philanthropy.  Here is an excerpt from her blog post:

“Congratulations are due to GiveForward for helping others raise more than $1,000,000 for their friends and family in need as well as nonprofit organizations! Started just 18 months ago, GiveForward has helped people raise more than a million dollars through individual, group and nonprofit causes. From helping families raise money for organ transplants or cancer treatment to teams raising money to support libraries and nonprofit organizations, GiveForward has harnessed the people give to people practice full throttle.

With GiveForward, individuals and groups can create a personal fundraising page for ANY person, cause or non-profit they care about and collect donations from friends and family all over the world. They have also formed partnerships with nonprofits like Alex’s Lemonade Stand, Colon Cancer Alliance and many others. While most nonprofit cancer organizations are not in a position to directly provide funds for each patient, they can now direct the patient or patient’s family and friends to GiveForward. Again people give to people and through a secure portal they can trust and with resources and tips to be successful.

Their work is the ultimate of people giving to people. A family in a health crisis reaches out or their friends pick up the cause for them. A nonprofit with donors who want to help use GiveForward to reach their friends, asking for their support. A cause can go viral as people pass along a message or request that touches them. GiveForward has harnessed the power of the Internet and social media to engage people in fundraising…because people give to people.

Many thanks and high-fives to Desiree Vargas and Ethan Austin for founding GiveForward, pursuing their quest and allowing people to make a difference everyday.”

Thank you Barbara for taking the time to recognize our work!  For more information about Barbara, please click here.

When someone is first diagnosed with cancer one of the most common questions they ask is “how am I going to pay for treatment?” says Jeannie Moore, Patient Support Manager at the Colon Cancer Alliance. While most non-profit cancer organizations are not in a position to directly provide funds for each patient, they can now direct the patient or patient’s family and friends to GiveForward.

At GiveForward, we are thrilled to announce that we are making 2010 “the Year of the Partnership.”  Since the beginning of the year, we have teamed up with some wonderful non-profit cancer organizations such as Alex’s Lemonade Stand, the Colon Cancer Alliance, and the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults.  Through these non-profits, patients and caregivers are referred to our site and services if they need to raise money for a loved one’s medical expenses.  You can check out our full list of partners on our spiffy, new Partners page.

Help Us Spread The Word

Teaming up with these non-profit cancer organizations provides a vital way for GiveForward to connect with those in need of our fundraising services and that’s why we need your help.  If you know of any cancer non-profits that would benefit from partnering with us, please contact us here.  We are always looking for ways in which to reach out to people in need and our partners provide the most important link for that!

GiveForward is excited to be participating in midVentures25 competition– an event that brings together 25 tech start-ups, all competing for the chance to win valuable prizes.  We will be among the “best investor-ready early-stage start-ups” Chicago has to offer.  Win or lose, the event is a great opportunity for GiveForward and the other start-ups to pitch our businesses to over 400 investors and attendees.

Judging the competition are online innovators such as Andrew Mason, CEO for Groupon, and Chuck Templeton, the founder of OpenTable.  The top 5 finalists will get the opportunity to do a 3 minute pitch for the audience and judges before the ultimate winner is chosen. 

Grand Prize includes hosting from SingleHop, software development consulting from Pathfinder Develoment, tech consulting from midVentures Group, legal services from Pasky IP, online advertising TheNextWeb,  an HP Business Netbook from ChicagoMicro, and $1,000 cash from Inventables.

midVenture25 was founded by Geoff Domoracki, CEO of midVentures, a technology based consulting firm and Jonathan Pasky, a patent attorney and founder of boutique Intellectual Property firm, Pasky IP.

The Demo Day and Conference takes place today, March 11th from 5:00 to 10:00pm at 200 S. Wacker Drive.  The event is open to the public, (with an admission fee of $10), and we encourage you to come out and support GiveFoward! 

For additional information on the event and midVenture, please click here.  For tickets, click here.