No child deserves to suffer from illness or pain, yet many babies and little children are affected by congenital heart conditions that require costly medical treatment. It’s heartbreaking to see a child’s smile fade due to the burden of condition, and the emotional toll it takes on families is immeasurable. As Nigerians, it is ten times harder because often, there are limited source of funding for the expensive surgeries the child needs to survive.
A congenital heart disease is a structural defect of the heart that a child is born with. While some of them are simple, requiring no treatment to resolve, some demand multiple surgeries to help the child live a normal live.
Some of the more popular ones in Nigeria are atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, tetralogy of Fallot, and patent ductus arteriosus.
Despite the challenges, there is hope.
Crowdfunding has emerged as a powerful tool for families to raise funds for their child’s medical and surgical treatment, ensuring they receive the care they need to thrive. If your child is battling a heart condition, medical crowdfunding offers a non repayable source of surgery funding.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps to create a compelling crowdfunding campaign, share your child’s story, and reach your fundraising goal. You’ll learn how to use crowdfunding to your child’s advantage.
How to Crowdfund for a Child who needs Heart Surgery
- Launch an online fundraising campaign
1. Choose a reputable crowdfunding platform: Select a trusted platform like Helpa or GoFundMe that specialises in medical fundraising.
2. Create a compelling campaign title and catchphrase: Craft a clear, concise title that conveys your child’s story and need for heart surgery.
For example;
- Help Baby Ade Fill the Hole in His Heart
- Little Zahara’s Heart Misses a Beat: Help Her Get Surgery
- Baby Chidi Needs a Healthy Heart
3. Write a heartfelt campaign story: Share details about your child’s before and after the diagnosis and treatment it needs, including the cost of surgery and medical expenses. You can introduce the viewers to you and and your family too. They might relate to you and feel the urge to donate.
4. Set a realistic fundraising goal: This will be primarily determined by the cost of surgery. Calculate the total amount needed for your child’s treatment and set a achievable goal. If you will be covering some of the cost, make sure you tell your audience. This might reflect well on you, as it shows some commitment on your part. It will encourage people to meet you in the middle and help you meet your goal.
5. Add compelling visuals: Include adorable photos and videos of your child to personalize the campaign and evoke empathy. If your child is up to a year old, you can share videos of different milestones like their first word and their first word.
7. Set up a payment system: Connect a secure payment method to receive donations, such debit cards or bank transfer. Great crowdfunding apps provide you with multiple options, and you can choose the most convenient for you. Helpa offers both online and offline donations options to help maximise contributions.
8. Share updates and progress: Regularly post positive and not so positive updates on your child’s condition, treatment, and campaign progress to keep donors engaged.
To boost donation, you have create traction around your campaign. Here are some ways to achieve that:
- Post your campaign on social media often
Identity the social media platforms you want to promote your medical fundraiser on. After that, leverage the built-in social media sharing buttons to spread the word and encourage donations.
You can share the campaign itself and urge people to donate or you can share updates about the fundraising progress or your child’s health status.
- Promote with your Email List
If you have an existing newsletter, you can utilise that avenue to solocit for more funds and reach a different audience. You don’t want to leave any stones unturned. In fact, you can build a new email list with the list of donor, so you can mail them once in a while.
- Build an online community
Another way to create traction around your online campaign is to build a community on social media. The rationale behind that is that when people feel like they are a part of a cause or movement, they’re more likely to take the cause personally. This implies that they will share your campaign with other people, recruit more people into your community, and donate more.
It may help to have a name for this community or members of this community.
For example,
-Chidi’s Internet Uncles and Aunties
-Ade’s Angels
-Mothers for Zahara
When sharing updates with this community, opt for collective pronouns to make people feel among.
E.g,
-We have crossed 5 million naira.
-We only need 3 million naira to go.
-Our baby has been cleared for her first surgery.
- Build an offline community, too
Having an online community is great, but an offline community is also gold. If you have the time and energy, you can build a new community consisting of different people. Or you can recruit your online community into an offline one. Some ways to engage your community offline is by organising a charity walk with your friends, family anf online community. You could also organise a theme sale to sell some items and generate money.
Takeaway
In conclusion, crowdfunding offers a ray of hope for families facing the almost impossible task of funding their child’s heart surgery. By leveraging the power of online and offline communities, you can achieve a successful fundraising campaign that brings your child one step closer to receiving that life-saving treatment they need.
Don’t hesitate to launch your campaign on Helpa. We’ll be with you every step of your crowdfunding journey.
