How to Raise Money Online for Family and Friends with Limited or No Medical Insurance

Create An Easter Seals Champion Web Page for Your Loved One to Raise Money

Did you know Easter Seals helps raise money for caregivers of elderly parents or any person that is disabled through the aging process? Easter Seals is also the largest provider of camp and recreation services for Americans with disabilities in the nation. Easter Seals uses 94 percent of the money raised by their organization to provide services for the 54 million children and adults in America who have mental or physical disabilities caused by birth defects, disease, accidents, or aging!

Now, you can create a dedicated Web page for your loved one to help raise money to cover the medical costs and living expenses for children and adults with disabilities. You can create an Honorary, Memorial, or Personal Web page with access to all the tools you need to update your personal Web page, email your friends and family, and track your fund raising performance. Easter Seals makes it easy to build your fundraising Web site since all you have to do is fill in a form with information and it builds the Web page for you. Then you can share it by email, on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or anywhere in your community.

When you raise money online through a dedicated Easter Seals Web page, you can use the money to help pay for healthcare costs, medical costs, prescriptions, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language pathology, early intervention, audiology, and other therapies that help your loved one learn the skills they need to live, learn, work and play regardless of their disability. Easter Seals also has the Easter Seals Child Development Centers and many adult day care programs in the community, at home or at school to help your loved ones.

Easter Seals works with over 145 workforce organizations to help put unemployed adults with disabilities and Senior Citizens over age 55 to work. The national average for adults with disabilities who are unemployed is nearly 12 times the national unemployment average. Helping to put willing and able elderly family members to work will provide caregivers with some extra cash to cover the extra living expenses for taking care of a parent.

National Transplant Assistance Fund & Catastrophic Injury Program (NTAF)

I have a friend that needs an organ transplant and he has no health insurance and is too sick to work full time to receive health insurance. He made his own personal story Web page on the National Transplant Assistance Fund & Catastrophic Injury Program (NTAF) and has raised thousands of dollars from family and friends to help pay the healthcare costs for his transplant.

The National Transplant Assistance Fund & Catastrophic Injury Program (NTAF) was started by medical professionals 26 years ago and has helped uninsured or underinsured families raise money for solid organ, bone marrow, stem cell or tissue transplants and spinal cord or traumatic brain injuries. You can build a web page to share in fundraising efforts with pictures and a story about your family member or friend in need. The money raised can be used for medical expenses not covered by insurance of the patient and the living donor.

NTAF also provides you with custom donation appeal letters and fundraising flyers that you can use in emails or to organize fundraising events in your town. My friend recently had a high school reunion and used the NTAF materials to help plan a Golf Tournament at the reunion to raise money for his transplant. NTAF collects the money and manages the disbursement of the healthcare funds to medical facilities. They also provide tax-deductible receipts for family and friends who donate. NTAF has helped families raise over $64 million to pay for out-of-pocket expenses related to catastrophic injury and transplantation. Here is a list of how NTAF helps you raise money:

* Helps you identify networks of family and friends to share fundraising information

* Provides personalized appeal letters to circulate in your community

* Provides guidelines for how to organize, launch and maintain a fundraising campaign tailored specifically to the needs of your loved one and their social network

* Provides how-to guides for fundraising events

* Provides tools to create flyers, tickets and coin bank labels for fundraising events. NTAF also offers an online flyer library for active fundraising patients and volunteers to utilize in the NTAF Patient Restricted Area on the NTAF personalized patient Web pages.

* NTAF offers media assistance for loved ones

* Provides transplant and spinal cord injury awareness materials for fundraising events

NTAF also helps with the financial management of the donations and disbursements of the money. They disburse funds weekly to pay for uninsured medical and medically related expenses. They award grants and other financial assistance to eligible patients. They provide a list of contributors for each fundraising campaign in the NTAF Patient Restricted Area so you can write thank you notes. NTAF will process corporate matching gifts. There is a CPA on the staff who helps with an annual audit of financial records and can provide what records you need for you own taxes.