What's the best way to coordinate recurring financial support?
November 21, 2020 1:24 PM Subscribe
There are so many people in need of support these days. Community care has been happening through Venmo, PayPal and GoFundMe, at least in my networks. But it usually only covers one gift at a time. I'm curious about solutions for providing ongoing support.
Applications: people with ongoing health issues, financial challenges, or who are in the process of applying for disability. It could help pay for childcare, groceries, rent, etc. The kinds of costs that don't go away.
Patreon has the right model but I'm not sure it would work for someone who has no capacity to create content.
The model of dozens of people paying monthly to support a missionary salary would work very well. But I'm not sure you can just sign a random individual up for those.
GoFundMe appears to offer recurring options. Is this the way to go?
Thank you for any thoughts or experiences!
Applications: people with ongoing health issues, financial challenges, or who are in the process of applying for disability. It could help pay for childcare, groceries, rent, etc. The kinds of costs that don't go away.
Patreon has the right model but I'm not sure it would work for someone who has no capacity to create content.
The model of dozens of people paying monthly to support a missionary salary would work very well. But I'm not sure you can just sign a random individual up for those.
GoFundMe appears to offer recurring options. Is this the way to go?
Thank you for any thoughts or experiences!
Look for the organizations that support the people in need you want to support, and donate to those orgs. Those orgs have the structure in place to maximize your donation and distribute support to people. If you're (understandably!) concerned about barriers to access for the folks in need, look for the smaller, community-based orgs, or ones you hear about getting aid to the people who need it from reliable sources.
I'm not talking about big charities like United Way or Salvation Army or whatever, or even food banks (which absolutely need and deserve and can maximize monetary donations!), but even more community-oriented and accessible, like local mutual aid groups, school lunch debt payoff funds, domestic abuse rescue networks, street outreach teams, and bail funds.
All those orgs could use your time and effort, too, if you're unable to contribute money or want to contribute in a different capacity.
posted by rhiannonstone at 3:28 PM on November 21, 2020 [1 favorite]
I'm not talking about big charities like United Way or Salvation Army or whatever, or even food banks (which absolutely need and deserve and can maximize monetary donations!), but even more community-oriented and accessible, like local mutual aid groups, school lunch debt payoff funds, domestic abuse rescue networks, street outreach teams, and bail funds.
All those orgs could use your time and effort, too, if you're unable to contribute money or want to contribute in a different capacity.
posted by rhiannonstone at 3:28 PM on November 21, 2020 [1 favorite]
If it's direct support to an individual, you could just use Venmo or Zelle with recurring transfers.
If you want to support a number of people, I'd agree with going through an established nonprofit that can leverage economies of scale.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 3:31 PM on November 21, 2020
If you want to support a number of people, I'd agree with going through an established nonprofit that can leverage economies of scale.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 3:31 PM on November 21, 2020
Response by poster: I appreciate the mutual aid site and suggestion to donate to organizations—but I'm hoping for ways to collect funding for one person at a time. There are a number of people in my life who I have in mind specifically, one for whom a bunch of friends are already collecting money. One person is coordinating through Venmo and I'm hoping for something more automated.
Ideally it would let people choose a giving level and see regular updates through the platform—so helpful because people will understand exactly what the impact of their money is, and for ease in scaling. My dream platform would show a monthly or annual goal so people could see how much more is needed and help make asks in their own networks.
This kind of tool will allow basically for someone's needs to be seen and covered without them needing to ask a bunch of individuals for help each month.
posted by rockyraccoon at 5:04 PM on November 21, 2020
Ideally it would let people choose a giving level and see regular updates through the platform—so helpful because people will understand exactly what the impact of their money is, and for ease in scaling. My dream platform would show a monthly or annual goal so people could see how much more is needed and help make asks in their own networks.
This kind of tool will allow basically for someone's needs to be seen and covered without them needing to ask a bunch of individuals for help each month.
posted by rockyraccoon at 5:04 PM on November 21, 2020
« Older I need a bathroom/shower clock with a loud alarm | Zoom camera works in test but not meeting, Help... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by gideonfrog at 2:04 PM on November 21, 2020