Your opinion on gofundme.com?

[NaLisa]

My DD's have used donorschoose dot org to get supplies for their classrooms. All of the donations were from strangers. All but one were via gift cards. I'm not sure how it works but it sounds like the donors earned gift cards from some type of reward program that can be applied to a donorschoose project. Both of my DD's teach self-contained Special Ed classrooms.

Yes, I think it was donorschoose instead of gofundme. It was open to strangers as well as shared with family and friends. Helped her get some much-needed supplies for her classroom that wouldn't have been possible otherwise.

 

[DizBelle]

I'm not bothered by any gofundme site.

People are free to set up a gofundme site for whatever they want.

I'm free to ignore it and not donate.

 

[Handbag Lady]

As for the items in the OP's post, yes, that's just panhandling. I'll assume the brother can budget for his son's needs for the uniform. Now, if the brother lost his job and otherwise has done everything he can then I might give him a pass.


But, let's say a child in a low-income area does need a baseball uniform, then no, that is not begging, it is community support.

It really depends on the situation. I donate a LOT to helping people get movies made. The big studios stopped funding smaller projects and I love movies, ergo, I donate. I like to see my friends' movies get made.

I also donate often to get supplies for a kindergarten where my friend is a teacher. They are inner-city and have NO budget for their arts. I believe heavily that arts DO belong in school.

 

[barkley]

As for the items in the OP's post, yes, that's just panhandling. I'll assume the brother can budget for his son's needs for the uniform. Now, if the brother lost his job and otherwise has done everything he can then I might give him a pass.


But, let's say a child in a low-income area does need a baseball uniform, then no, that is not begging, it is community support.

It really depends on the situation. I donate a LOT to helping people get movies made. The big studios stopped funding smaller projects and I love movies, ergo, I donate. I like to see my friends' movies get made.

I also donate often to get supplies for a kindergarten where my friend is a teacher. They are inner-city and have NO budget for their arts. I believe heavily that arts DO belong in school.

w/ a parent w/ a sudden unexpected job loss or a low income child I would suggest to the parent to explore some community resources. when I worked in social services (in a horrendously low income area) it was amazing what 'niche' funds were available for these types of situations. often the organizers of a sports teams or extracurriculars are aware of these but don't publicize them among participants b/c they don't want the funds abused (people 'budgeting' that their kid's uniform/supplies...will be covered through an outside source). there are also community foundations that administer funds that sometimes have pockets of monies specifically for this purpose (dd received a traditional academic college scholarship last year, and the organization that administers the trust's established by private individuals lists grants that can be applied for throughout the year to help with or meet the costs of an extracurricular for verifiable needs).