Crowdfunding for Chronic Diseases

Posted On: 2022-11-15 17:30:06

Chronic diseases like stroke, paralysis, cancer, heart disease, arthritis need long-term treatments that usually cost a fortune. When health and well-being are in question, no one would want to compromise. But hefty medical bills can drain out all your life earnings. At times, your medical insurance, claiming the fixed deposit investments before they mature or even borrowing money is not enough to pay for life-saving treatments. What can you do at such difficult times?

 

Well, crowdfunding is one option you can opt for that can assure easing your financial crises for medical needs, especially when getting treatment for chronic diseases. Crowdfunding has become increasingly popular in recent years, particularly in nations without universal healthcare. In India, crowdfunding involves raising funds for medical causes, initially. A bunch of successful campaigns and earning a larger number of people's trust later, crowdfunding gained momentum in other areas including raising funds for start-ups, personal causes like building dream houses and supporting education. 

 

 

 

The Department of Health and Family Welfare, India launched a Digital Portal for Crowdfunding & Voluntary Donations that would support rare and long-term diseases. Medical causes are rare diseases and those that need long-term treatments from various parts of India are uploaded on the portal for everyone visiting it to contribute to the campaigns. It's a single platform for voluntary contributions to the treatment of patients suffering from rare and chronic diseases. They go by the objectives- "Let's Care for the Rare" and "Rare and Care can go together." You can access the portal at https://rarediseases.nhp.gov.in/

 

How Does Crowdfunding for Chronic Diseases Work?

When a patient discovers that one has been diagnosed with a rare or chronic disease and has been suggested a long-term or life-long treatment can start fundraising. 

 

Once the treatment is suggested, and the estimated cost is known, hence, the patient's family, friends, or anyone related can start a fundraising campaign on the available crowdfunding platforms. Filaantro is one such crowdfunding platform that supports medical crowdfunding along with other causes like education and hunger relief. 

 

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A story with details regarding the diagnosis of the patient, details of the ongoing treatment, and the hospital facility where the patient is receiving care. It should be a short yet an all informative, appealing story. The story needs good quality pictures attached to it, it helps in conveying the message well. Along with these, the beneficiary account details must be attached for donors to make the payments, as it is online. A time goal must be clearly mentioned in the fundraiser for people to know the period of the treatment. 

 

Once the campaign is uploaded, it is promoted on social media and the close circle of the patient. Social media holds great power in this digital world. It helps the fundraising campaign to reach numerous people across the world. As a clear need for the funds reaches appeal to individuals and other organizations, they donate to it. Once the goal amount is reached, the funds raised are supposed to be withdrawn for the beneficiary to use. Crowdfunding needs continuous efforts for it to succeed. With these efforts, one can raise the heavy funds required for expensive medical treatments.

 

Advantages of Medical Crowdfunding

1. The biggest benefit of crowdfunding for chronic diseases is, you do not have to repay the funds raised to any of the donors. Unlike loans, you do not have to repay any principal amount or interest. And like medical insurance, you do not have to pay insurance premiums at regular intervals. 
2. There are no restrictions or limits to how much funds you can raise. Your goal amount can be the required amount for the treatment in lakhs and crores. 
3. There is a minimal cost to fundraising. Apart from crowdfunding platform charges, you do not have to pay for any procedures of fundraising. 
4. Online crowdfunding for chronic diseases offers secured transactions. As the payment method is online and many in number, the payment gateway facilitates the transaction for every donation that you receive. Unlike offline donations, you do not have to keep track of every donation made manually, as you will find the donors recorded in the transaction list. 
5. It's simple to set up a fundraiser online. Like loans, fundraising setups do not need prolonged waiting for approval loans and time-consuming documentation processes. You can visit the crowdfunding platform of your size and fill in your details to register for fundraising. 

 

 

 

The Bottom Line...

Crowdfunding can assure solving financial constraints when chronic diseases demand prolonged and expensive treatments. With crowdfunding, there is no restriction on how many times you can raise funds. For prolonged treatment that needs many sessions of medical support, you can fundraise as many times as funds are needed. Filaantro is one such trustworthy online crowdfunding platform that raises funds for medical emergencies and for chronic diseases. It has a user-friendly interface. The process of running the online fundraiser takes place with a few simple steps of registration and filling in details. 

Visit: https://filaantro.org/ to know more

 

Author: Anjali Patel