Sometimes you run across a project that’s just so blatantly doomed to fail that you’ve got to wonder what exactly the person behind it was thinking. A prime example: This GoFundMe isn’t really offering any perks for donors outside of having the guy not die of cancer.
Uhhhh, yeah, good luck with that one, pal!
While it’s tragic that 34-year-old bartender Cliff Menendez needs to raise $40,000 to help cover the expensive treatment he needs to fight a rare type of potentially fatal cancer, an even bigger tragedy is that his sister, Lucia, who organized the GoFundMe, seriously thinks that people are going to pony up that kind of scratch simply to see their friend/family member stay alive. With the sheer volume of crowdfunding going on these days, without offering some cool perks like some of Cliff’s autographed IV bags, early access to his update posts, or one-on-one Zoom calls while Cliff receives the expensive treatments that donors are paying for, this is definitely going to be a hard sell.
Look, we’re not trying to be cruel here, but take a look at the most successful crowdfunding campaigns and you’ll find that they all offer some sort of tiered rewards to convince donors to dig deep. Five dollars here or $10 there and there isn’t going to add up to $40k fast enough to get Cliff the therapies you claim he so urgently needs unless there’s a little something in it for the donors. People like to feel that their hard-earned dollars are appreciated, and simply saying “thank you, now I won’t die” isn’t it. Even some cool digital rewards like an instant download of a screensaver of Cliff in his hospital bed holding up the amount of cash the donor just sent his way or some anti-cancer themed cryptocurrencies would go a long way to make donors feel like this isn’t a one-way street.
C’mon, Cliff! There’s gotta be some way you can sweeten the pot outside of just becoming healthy again…
There’s no doubt discovering you have cancer in your 30s while uninsured is an overwhelming experience, so people would definitely understand if the perks for donating to this GoFundMe were a little phoned in, like tote bags that say, “CANCER SUCKS” or some choice pulls from Cliff’s prize collection of rare soul LPs. But seriously, right now all it’s offering is some warm and fuzzy feelings, which frankly people can get pretty easily by sharing the link to this GoFundMe to their Instagram story without actually donating to it themselves. Sorry, but if you really expect to raise five figures in the two months that Cliff has left without treatment, people are gonna want a lil somethin’ somethin’, no matter how badly they want to see him live.