More and more people are relying on the kindness of strangers through crowd-funding websites to help reduce their financial burdens, from paying medical bills to funeral expenses.
But the sites have also caught the attention of college students trying to finish up their degrees. It costs about $10,000 a year for in-state tuition in Ohio, and it’s even more for out-of-state students. The average college graduate in 2016 is facing $37,172 in student loan debt.
Students use the sites to pitch compelling stories in search of help with tuition and other college expenses, from housing to purchasing a laptop.
Rita Stricklin of Akron used the GoFundMe website to raise money for graduate school fees.
“Things are adding up and there’s no way I’ll be able to make it without some help,” she posted. “By helping me today, you’re helping me reach my goal” of getting a masters degree from the University of Akron.
Stricklin reached her goal of $511 within a month with 15 donors.
GoFundMe, launched in 2010, is the world’s largest social fundraising platform, with more than $3 billion raised so far.
In the last three years alone, more than 130,000 GoFundMe campaigns have raised $60 million from more than 850,000 donations for college tuition and related expenses.
Another popular website, YouCaring.com, has raised more than $500 million for humanitarian causes.
Both are free online websites and guarantee that no fees are involved from the recipient or the donor.
Along with the success stories, though, are efforts that come up well short of their goals.
Two Kent State University students hoping to raise funds for university-sponsored trips abroad found little support for their campaigns.
Sameera Bowles, 19, of Akron started a GoFundMe account for a trip the West African nation of Ghana that will cost $3,200. She was trying to raise $2,000 for the trip because scholarships were available. By the time her February deadline came, she had only raised $350.
“I’ve known people who used [GoFundMe] for miscellaneous things. I actually knew a guy who created one for $10 for gas money and he ended up raising something crazy, like $500,” she said. “I said, ‘Wow.’ If people are willing to give him money for that, hopefully if I can put a very true and real story about me wanting to study abroad … that I could get money too.”
She posted: “Any amount helps, and I’d be forever grateful for whatever you could donate. Asking people for money is a very hard and vulnerable thing to do, so I wouldn’t ask if this wasn’t something that I were passionate about.”
Bowles, a Pan-African studies and communication studies major who entered Kent State with an associate degree from Akron Early College, said it was her final opportunity to study abroad before graduating in May 2018.
“I’m not disappointed because I expected the bulk of my trip to be funded by myself and scholarships. I didn’t have super-high expectations,” she said, after receiving donations from nine people. “I just thought it would be a little bit to help. And it did. I raised $350. It paid for my preliminary application fees.”
Natalia Roman Alicea, 21, also a Kent State student, asked for $3,100 for a trip to Cuba to visit “before its cultural purity is affected by the waves of tourism … and to explore my roots and my culture.”
Alicea is from Puerto Rico and wants to study the African religions and practices that impacted Cuban and Puerto Rican culture. Her grandmother died before she was old enough to learn and understand her beliefs.
She received a total of $120 from five donors — all people she knew.
“I’m a low-income undergraduate student. I don’t have three grand just laying around. I have a lot of following on social media, so I thought it was a way to rally support for something that would be very beneficial to me,” she said. “It took off at first, but then slowed down. So for me it wasn’t very successful, and as a result I decided not to do it because I didn’t have enough money by the first deadline.”
As it turned out, the spring trip was canceled last week because it didn’t get enough people.
The $250 deposit will be refunded, so she will be able to return the $120 she received from people.
“I think when it’s a small amount and it’s an emergency, a last-minute kind of thing, I think people are more inclined to help,” she said.
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com or Follow her on Twitter@MarilynMillerBJ.