Help me help my friend's niece

May 20, 2007 11:22 AM

My friend asked me to set up a blog and donation box for his niece, who's in the news after she was hit by a car running a red light. How should I go about this?

My friend's niece is a toddler; she was on the back of her mom's bike when it was hit by a car running a red light. She's in critical condition. Apparently this is a major news story in that area right now.

My friend and his family are at the hospital without access to computers. He asked me to set up a blog so they could send updates on her condition (through me I suppose.) He'd also like to have a place for people to donate towards medical bills.

I'm a former techie, so I'm comfortable setting up a blog, domain name, Paypal (Dropcash?) link etc. So mostly I'm wondering:

1) How can I set up a donation link that people can trust? My friend said he could open a bank account in the area tomorrow; I suppose he could also visit an Internet cafe or whatever to link it to a Paypal account ... anything else we should think about?

2) Any other general tips?

thanks

posted by lbergstr to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Best answer: How about multiple ways to donate? PayPal for those who are comfortable with that method, an address for checks and money orders for the others.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 11:35 AM on May 20, 2007

Best answer: Recently in San Francisco, there was a story about Michael Keenan, a local man who saved a dog from a house fire and was badly burned in the process. Friends and family of his put together a status blog and donation page. You might want to look at what they did for ideas.

http://michaeljameskeenan.blogspot.com/

They setup something using paypay, and they also set up something with a local bank that allowed you to send in a check and it would be donated to his support fund. The methods they used are on the front page of the blog.

Good luck.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 1:40 PM on May 20, 2007

Best answer: If no one's made direct contact with the media yet, it would be a good idea to issue a press release (by fax) to local radio, print, and TV news with updates and contact information for interviews.
posted by cowbellemoo at 2:32 PM on May 20, 2007

I think you want to look at Chipin.com and possibly even ModestNeeds.org
posted by IndigoSkye at 1:37 PM on May 22, 2007