Fundraisers

[donnia]

Has anyone else done fundraisers to help pay for their medical bills?  My social worker at Baylor told us we needed to raise between $20,000 - $30,000.  We have done bake sales and a hotdog sale.  We have raised about $3000.  My friends and family have put together a mexican dinner, silent auction, and live auction for November 10.  The community has really helped by donating things for the auction.

Just wondering if anyone else is doing the same.... or anything else, I could use ideas.

Oh yeah, anyone is invited if you live close enough to San Angelo, Tx.

[Rerun]

Fundraisers for what?  Are you on Medicare?  Do you go to a DaVita Clinic?  What are they telling you?

Did they say they would not treat you if you don't come up with the money?

Oh, man, I hear Law Suite!!!

[donnia]

No Rerun    I do have insurance, and pretty good insurance at that.  But, for example... in the last 2 months I have spent about $800 on doctor visit, meds, and surgeries.  They told me I would probably be out of work for 4 months, so I will need funds to pay my household bills.  Plus, I have to drive 5 hours away for transplant, then will need to stay in Dallas for a month afterwards.  So the funds will also pay for food, lodging, gas etc.

Medicare starts Dec. 9th.  I do not go to a DaVita Clinic.

[goofynina]

Donnia, you need to be careful, when i learned that we needed to raise $50,000.00 for my transplant, we started doing fund raisers,  little did we know we could get in very big trouble, we were told this by NKF, we had called them non-chalantally (sp) to ask them a few questions and when the found out what we were doing they said we need to stop immediately, so we did,  just be careful, there is all kinds of legal mumbo jumbo 'bout stuff like this and i didnt have the energy to fight so i gave up    Good luck to you my friend 

[okarol]

Jenna has Medicare and Blue Shield Insurance (she is still covered under our family policy, although Blue Shield tried to disallow all her transplant expenses, saying she was not a full time student, but then they started covering them - no doubt due to the legal ramifications of agreeing to cover it, then changing their position after the transplant.) So now it appears (we still don't have final billing - it's been 9 months!) that with both Medicare and the private insurance we will not pay much, if anything, out of pocket - for both Jenna and her donor's surgeries. The expenses we incurred were related to air travel, rental car and lodging for testing and surgery for the donor, our lodging near the hospital (which is 2 hours from our home), and extra housekeeper hours and driver for my kids while I was in San Diego. The donor would not allow us to pay her time lost from work, which was about 2 1/2 weeks.

Many hospital encourage fundraising - here's an example: From Loma Linda University Medical, Transplant Division - http://www.llu.edu/llumc/transplant/kidneytransplant.html -

The Financial Evaluation

You will meet with the financial coordinator to talk about your finances, and what your medical insurance covers for your transplant. It would be helpful to have a family member attend this interview with you. Some of the topics that will be discussed are:

    * Medicare and other Social Security benefits
    * Possible funds to pay for your transplant evaluation
    * Possible disability for yourself and/or your live donor
    * Fundraising if your insurance does not cover all of your transplant or your medication
    * How to handle Medi-Cal eligibility for transplant
    * Bills and statements that you receive from the doctors or hospital
    * Cost and payment of immunosuppressive medications after transplant

I think people who never go on dialysis and therefore don't have Medicare, may incur a percentage of costs - usually in the case of a pre-emptive transplant from a living donor. If you are on dialysis and have a good health insurance, and you get short-term disability for time off work, you should be fine.

[Rerun]

I've always donated to the National Kidney Foundation because they say they help patients get transplants.  Call their ass up.

[goofynina]

I've always donated to the National Kidney Foundation because they say they help patients get transplants.  Call their ass up.

We did, but they have so much red tape to go through, we thought it would be better to do it on our own, that is when they told us we couldnt do it like that, so, oh well,

[donnia]

I totally agree goofynina.... the NKF has way too much red tape!!!!  They told me that I could raise money here with their assistance, then send them allll the money... then turn receipts to them to get reimbursed a month later.... no thanks... but glad it is available to people.

I am very careful... I put alllll money raised into a benefit account.  When I use any money I use my debit card.   I only use the account for medical related things.

I also talked to my tax preparer about it.  She said in my defense, that the money I receive is a gift, and if it is under a certain amount then it is not taxable.

Thanks for the warnings tho   I am trying to be vveeerrryyy careful.

[okarol]

Oh I remember another thing I was told - if you have a third party do the fundraising for your benefit, like a family member or friend - then there's less chance of the implication of impropiety.

[donnia]

Gotcha Karol.... I have one or two people involved with all my fundraising.

[KR Cincy]

You originally asked about rubber duck races...Cincinnati has one of the biggest for the local foodbank...thousands and thousands of ducks dropped into the Ohio River over Labor Day weekend. It's very visual and the winner gets a car lease for a year (I think). Be aware that this is considered a raffle, and different states have different rules covering raffles, so check that out.

Some of tne most successful fundraisers for situations like yours are motorcycle rallies...check with Sluff, maybe he can hook you up with a rider in your area who'd be willing to help put one together.

Walkathons are everywhere, but that's because they work. Almost everyone can participate, and more people contributing a little tends to be more realistic than a few people contributing a lot.

Lastly, if there's something you love to do, find a way to make that into a fundraiser. A small group of women around where I live are avid scrapbookers, so they put together a scrap-a-thon to raise money for Alzheimers.

Just a few thoughts...let us know what you wind up doing.

[angela515]

Since you brought up "walkathons", i am curious... and always wondered this... Why don't people just donate the money, why do they actually walk?

[KR Cincy]

It used to be that walkers would get donations per mile or kilometer they walked...so they were earning the donation. Most of that has ended, since going back and collecting was always such a hassle. Now they do it to feel participatory, because many of them walk as teams with co-workers or family, because there are goodie bags and t-shirts, because they were going to walk anyway for exercise, because some have pre and post walk entertainment and parties, or because they want to justify the donations they collected. I think most also understand the power of numbers...the more people who participate, the more likely the media is to cover it, giving the cause more publicity.

[KT0930]

Since you brought up "walkathons", i am curious... and always wondered this... Why don't people just donate the money, why do they actually walk?

Also because some people want to feel like they are doing something to help, but they might not be able to donate money themselves, so they give their time by walking and collecting money from those who have the money and desire to give but not the time. That way everyone feels like they're helping in some way.

[angela515]

 Thanks for the answers!