Medical Fundraisers

Raising money for medical bills

A medical fundraiser covers what insurance didn't: the hospital bills, a surgery, travel to a specialty hospital, the therapy that got denied, and the paychecks nobody is earning while all of it happens. Medical bills are one of the most common reasons people raise money on GiveSendGo. The page you create is a fundraiser, the person who sets it up is the fundraiser creator, and whoever's bank account receives the money is the recipient. Those last two don't have to be the same person, and in this category that matters, because the patient is often in no condition to be typing. A spouse, a sibling, or a friend can build it instead.

How to raise money for medical bills

Anyone can start a fundraiser, for themselves or for someone else, with no nonprofit status and no EIN required. If writing it is the part that's stopping you, MICA, GiveSendGo's AI writing assistant, can draft a first version from a short description and you edit from there.

• Pick the recipient's country first, because it's locked once the fundraiser is created and the only fix is starting over with a new one.
• Set a goal and choose the Medical category, then write the title and the story in your own words and add a photo or a short video.
• Use the specifics you already have, since those are what carry a medical fundraiser: the diagnosis, the hospital, and what next month looks like.
• Publish it, or save it and come back once you know more.
• Give people a breakdown of what the money covers, so they can see how their generosity is actually making a difference. Our help desk points to these key elements: a realistic goal, that breakdown, a direct ask, strong photos or a short video, regular updates, and steady sharing rather than a single post.

Start a GiveSendGo

Who starts it and who receives the money

The fundraiser creator sets the fundraiser up, and the recipient is whoever's bank account the money lands in. Keeping the two roles separate is what lets a family fundraise for a patient who is mid-treatment or recovering. The rules on the recipient are worth reading before you create anything, because one of them can't be undone.

• The recipient must be 18 or older, live in the fundraiser's country, and have a bank account there. A patient under 18 can't be their own recipient, so a parent or guardian takes that role.
• If the recipient's country isn't supported, a trusted adult who lives in a supported country can be named instead, receive the funds, and pass them along.
• One account can run more than one fundraiser, and each one has its own recipient and its own verification.

What it costs

GiveSendGo doesn't take a cut. There's no platform fee. What's deducted is the payment processor's fee: 2.7% + 30¢ per gift for US fundraisers, 3.5% + 30¢ outside the US. On a $100 gift to a US fundraiser, $97 reaches you. A $250 gift lands at $242.95. Outside the US, that $100 gift lands at $96.20, and non-USD fundraisers can also pick up currency exchange fees set by the processor.

GiveSendGo runs on the optional tip at checkout. Every giver sees a suggested tip they can set to any amount, including $0, and that covers our operating costs and mission outreach. So none of what you raise toward a hospital bill comes to us as a platform fee.

Before you publish, check your optional giving settings. If you set a percentage to GiveSendGo while creating the fundraiser, that amount is added on top of each gift and shown to the people giving at checkout, and some of them read it as a platform fee. You can edit it anytime from your fundraiser's Settings.

When the money reaches you, and what verification involves

Your first gift becomes available 5 days after it's received. Every gift after that becomes available on a rolling 3-day basis. Once you request a transfer, it typically lands in your bank within 2 to 3 business days. Non-USD transfers can take longer.

Request transfers yourself from the Transfers tab whenever funds are available, or set them to go out weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. In the US, use a checking account, because transfers are sent as checking transactions and a savings account may be rejected by the bank. Before any of that money moves, the recipient goes through identity verification, which works like this:

• They provide a bank account in the fundraiser's country, a valid tax ID, a government-issued photo ID with date of birth, a phone number, and a residential address that isn't a PO box.
• Review starts once the ID is uploaded and the fundraiser has received its first gift, whichever comes later, and usually finishes 1 to 2 business days from that point.
• Three things get checked: the fundraiser's content, the recipient's identity, and the recipient's bank setup. The trust and safety team also confirms the recipient's relationship to the patient makes sense.
• Nobody is exempt, because identity verification through the payment partner is a standard financial-industry requirement.

Start a GiveSendGo

If you came here to give

If you came to help someone else through a hospital stretch, the fundraisers listed above are real ones in this category. A fundraiser only appears here once it has been published 5 days and raised $100 or more in online gifts.

You can leave a comment with your gift, and it stays on the page beside it. Card details run through a PCI Level 1 certified processor, the top tier in the payments industry, and are never stored on GiveSendGo's own servers. Your name and email are never sold or passed to anyone else.

Support a medical fundraiser on this page