Fundraising Ideas

[charlie85]

Hey guys,

I am working on saving up for my top surgery. I had been saving for awhile and had about 3,000 saved up when medical stuff happened to my dad putting him out of work since October and I gave my parents the money I had to help keep them from losing their house. And I didn't mind doing this one bit, but I have no idea when/if I will be seeing that money again so I wanted to start saving on my own again now that he is finally out of the clear and things have settled down here a bit. In the last six months my dad had a medical emergency where the doctors were shocked he made it, then my grandmother passed away leading to a family war, and my mother was in a car accident that totaled her car, so it has not been easy but as a family we have pulled together and that is what counts.

So I was wondering what are some things you've done to help finance your top surgery? Or if you saved the old fashion way by working more hours etc.

This fall I am student teaching and we are not allowed to have a job during this period, it can actually result in being released from the program completely at my school, so I don't want to risk that when school has been shaky and my program is over once myself and one other guy complete it this year. So I am wanting to try to fundraise some and then once I finish school I will work as many jobs as I need to/can in order to make this happen sooner. Any suggestions/tips are much appreciated.

[A. Loki]

Wow, that's gotta be rough  It takes a strong person to be able to give that much up espeically when you're already halfway there!
I've been doing many different things to save up....one of which is just plain saving up. 
A good site to make 50 extra bucks a month or so is globaltestmarket.com...they do paid online surveys and are pretty legit compared to other websites.
Another site (if you're pretty artsy and good with ideas) is createmytattoo.com...they have tattoo design contests, winner gets the prize which is anywhere from $40 to $500
..both of these are great for doing in your spare time
Also, if you have lots of people who support you and your transition, you could always open an account with gofundme.com.  I did this about two weeks ago and I've already raised about $450!
Best of luck!

[DriftingCrow]

Sorry about what happened to your family, it sounds rough. 

Do you have any hobbies? I've made some money in the past selling my paintings, knitting stuff, jewelry, fabric I've dyed, etc.

We also have a member here who's saved up quite a bit by keeping loose change.

[King Malachite]

I still have a LONG ways to go before getting top surgery.  I don't have an official job but I've saved up money by selling things on craigslist, finding loose change, doing small odd jobs for family, and even going to a store to stock up on cheap drinks to resell them.

You could also try fiverr.com which you could sell your talents for $4. Utilize your hobbies.  If you like to cook then you can sell plates or you can get a keg of alcohol (if your legal) and sell by the cup.  You could consider buying $100 gift card and hold a raffle for $5 per ticket.  Just make sure you have enough people to participate in it.

[charlie85]

Thank you all for the ideas.

I checked out the survey site and will def be doing that as it is easy enough to do.

I also have the gofundme site setup as well.

And will check out the fiverr.com site as well.

[Felix]

I'm not saving for top surgery as I'm not quite functional enough to do away with luxuries and get caught up with utilities and get my foot doctor paid off and get my cat vaccinated and lol my hard drive is trying to die and anyway I just really suck at life but if I did here's what I would do -

Save and save and save in the moment and don't worry about the big picture. It adds up. Don't discount tiny sources. Like if you can sew up the rips in your pants and get new insoles instead of new shoes and cook your own bread and buy from the farmers market instead of the supermarket etc you can save months and months of time financially. You can turn off the climate control in your house (radiators/air conditioners) and read books instead of paying for cable and use bar soap instead of liquid and cut down on how often you do laundry. You can stop paying for netflix and internet and just hang out at the library a lot. Buy toilet paper in bulk twice a year instead of twice a month. If you keep looking for ways you'll find lots and lots of ways. If you really need to save money, think of money in all things.

Also you can sell an unbelievable amount of random whatever on ebay and craigslist. Seriously anything and everything. If you have an eye for it you can purchase clothes or books at thrift stores/garage sales and resell them to regular bookstores and consignment shops and boutiques. As was mentioned you can do market research. I get probably a couple hundred dollars a year by participating in medical studies. You can look online for people who need odd jobs performed. You can have a yard sale yourself as often as local laws allow.

You probably could come up with more ideas than I can right now. Best of luck to you. Having to wait is really difficult.