MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - Aisling Burns and Kiara Allen wanted to raise money for the families of two Lancaster County teens killed here in recent weeks.
And they wanted to do it quickly.
So the two Millersville University seniors harnessed the power of the Internet - and more than 1,000 others seeking to do good.
Burns and Allen used an online service called GoFundMe to raise more than $44,000 for the families of a 13-year-old boy struck and killed by a car in Elizabethtown earlier this month, and a college freshman strangled to death in her Millersville University dormitory in February.
Their ability to raise such large amounts of money from so many people in such a short amount of time illustrates the power and reach of GoFundMe and similar crowdfunding services, which have become popular in recent years.
“I really didn’t expect to reach that amount,” said Burns, 22. “It is overwhelming. It is really nice how many people supported the family.”
Burns raised money to help the family of Millersville freshman Karlie Hall, even though she didn’t know her. Hall was beaten and strangled to death in her dormitory room Feb. 8; her boyfriend was charged with her killing.
Allen raised money for her university track coach Scott Weiser’s family. His 13-year-old son, David Weiser, was struck and killed by a vehicle while walking home from school in Elizabethtown March 9.
Allen raised $24,969 from 587 donors in 12 days through the GoFundMe site. Burns raised $19,342 in donations from 558 people in a month.
Both families thanked the students for the helping hand.
How they got started
Burns searched “crowdfunding” on Google and the GoFundMe site was one of the top five listed. Putting up the fund page took 20 minutes.
Pages created on the GoFundMe site include a photograph of the one who inspired the fundraising and a description of what happened to them or what they are going through.
Donors can send money for the cause electronically. The site also allows them to write a message, and many take advantage of the opportunity.
It’s all free for the creators of the online fundraising campaigns. GoFundMe automatically deducts 8 percent fee from each donation.
Burns spent only about two hours managing it in the month it was live. A few people emailed her and the university to verify the site’s legitimacy, but no other concerns surfaced.
Burns found it exciting getting emails every hour from GoFundMe updating how much money was donated. At one point, $2,500 was raised in an hour. It only took 24 hours to top $12,000.
Burns is giving $15,000 to Karlie Hall’s family and $1,000 each to the YWCA of Lancaster and LaMancha Animal Rescue in Unionville in Chester County where Hall had worked, she said.
Another person raised $9,005 on a separate GoFundMe account to help Hall’s family pay for additional funeral expenses, according to the site.
For the David Weiser fund, Allen initially set a goal of $10,000. Donations flowed in at such a dizzying rate, however, she raised the goal to $15,000 and then $20,000.
It made her “extremely happy” to be able to raise the money for the family of her beloved coach, Allen said.
“I was able to kind of be that sunshine in his life,” she said.
Keys to online fundraising
“Increasingly, people are turning to the Internet to do a lot of fundraising,” said Theresa Russell-Loretz, chairwoman of Millersville University’s Communication and Theatre Department. “It is an inexpensive way to reach a generation that has grown up with social media.”
GoFundMe started in 2010. According to its website, it has become the No. 1 crowdfunding site for personal causes and life events, raising more than $1 million every day.
There are nearly 3,000 GoFundMe accounts in the 17601 zip code alone.
Russell-Loretz teaches about social media campaigns and said successful online crowdfunding requires strong relationships, an evangelist and a good story.
Allen, who is one of her students, demonstrated all three, Russell-Loretz said.
The Elizabethtown and Millersville communities had strong relationships with the Weiser family and rallied behind them.
Allen proved to be a good evangelist because she knew Scott Weiser well, establishing trust in her fund.
The story of a 13-year-old boy being struck and killed while walking home from school is obviously powerful, Russell-Loretz said.
“It is every parent’s nightmare,” she said. “With a tragedy, we want something to do. We feel helpless. This provides a tangible way to accomplish something.”
Donors tend to be drawn to stories where a humble person is seeking help for someone else, not themselves, Russell-Loretz added. The story can’t focus on an organization.
“The story has to be about the person, the struggle and them being victorious in their accomplishment,” she said. “It helps us identify with that person.”
Mainstream media exposure can also drive more people to donate.
New technology related to transferring money has also fueled the growth of online giving, she said. Younger generations are more comfortable sending money online than their parents.
“With a fund set up at a bank, you have to put a check in an envelope,” Russell-Loretz said. “It’s so much easier to just do it online.”
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Online:
https://bit.ly/1IeV3Yi
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Information from: LNP, https://lancasteronline.com
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