GiveForward - Fundraising Made Simple

On Saturday afternoon, Janet Myers of Bainbridge Island, WA helped put GiveForward over the $2 million mark in total donations with her contribution to the Haiti Relief Effort, a fundraiser to help send Stephanie and Shannon to Fond Parisien, where they will enlist as relief workers in a field hospital. This is a fantastic cause [...]

Those who have the pleasure of knowing Jonny Imerman are aware that he has almost exclusively worn an Imerman Angels shirt for the last three years. This all changed earlier this week, however, when Jonny donned our Giveasaurus shirt. How did this once-in-a-century event come about? Well, it was the result of a recent burrito-eating [...]

It’s hard to believe, but Saturday was the two-year anniversary of the launch of GiveForward. We couldn’t be more grateful for all the wonderful people who have been a part of our community thus far and just wanted to send out a quick thank you to everyone.

GiveForward turns two!
GiveForward turns two!

During this time, we’ve helped 1300 families raise almost $2 million for things like chemotherapy treatments, organ transplants and out-of-pocket living and travel expense. None of this would have been possible without our amazing community getting involved. We appreciate the fundraising tips you have shared with us over the years, your positive (and occasionally negative) feedback and most importantly your willingness to spread the word about GiveForward to others who can benefit from our service!

One of the best ways to spread the word about your online fundraising page is to create a Facebook group where you can quickly share information among friends and ask people to donate. The bigger your Facebook group, the more potential donors you have. So here’s a useful tip on how to get lots of people to join your Facebook group.

Step 1. Find a donor ahead of time willing to match up to $500, $1000 or some similar amount. If you don’t have a single donor willing to contribute this amount, try asking 5 friends to each donate $200 and pool the money for a total of $1000.

Though GiveForward users are clearly hip to the advantages of online fundraising, we’ve seen a great number of them also throw offline fundraising events to help a loved one pay for medical expenses. These users have proven that offline fundraising events can be a great way to supplement online fundraising efforts.

A while back I had the chance to attend the OMG Cancer Summit for young adults in New York presented by I2Y and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

While there were a ton of really great speakers at the Summit like Adam Ostrow, Brad Ludden, Tamika Felder, Jonny Imerman and Matthew Zachary, for me, the best was keynote speaker and former Survivor winner, Ethan Zohn. Maybe it’s because Ethan and I both share the same name, a love of soccer and had fathers pass away from colon cancer at an early age. Or maybe it’s simply because we both happen to rock the jew-fro, but something about his speech really hit home with me.

We’ve noticed lately that, much like those seeking alternative cancer treatments, an increasing number of people with rare diseases are using GiveForward to raise money for their often-higher medical costs. This actually isn’t too surprising because we recently learned that roughly 25 million Americans are living with rare diseases. Most people have probably never heard [...]

Everybody here at GiveForward would like to congratulate Laci Green for winning our Giveasaurus Challenge, thus earning an additional $500 donation towards her fundraiser for Child Family Health International. In just two days, Laci raised $40,000 for this wonderful organization that helps “bring healthcare and sustainable healthcare programs to under-served communities around the globe.” We [...]

GiveForward is looking for bright, enthusiastic, highly-motivated rising juniors, seniors, new graduates and grad students who want to really sink their teeth into a project and run with it.  You must have excellent writing and communication skills, and a sense of humor is a REQUIREMENT. Additionally, the ability to finish a two pound burrito from [...]

Alright so the bad news is that GiveForward fell to Imerman Angels in yesterday’s intern-on-intern burrito-eating contest by 12 ounces. 12 measly ounces. The good news is that everyone survived, AND we raised money to help people with cancer! Both organizations went all out for this competition, and we want to thank everyone who made [...]