Some people are doing it.
I had heard of GoFundMe, and knew vaguely what it was, but the following paragraphs describe in a bit more detail what it does: some facts I gathered from doing a little online research.
It's a "crowdfunding platform" that has server access to the web, and which provides that public wanting to appeal at large for financial help (and apparently anyone can make use if it) a very large online audience: likely much larger than any they as individuals could obtain on their own.
That's their selling point: "because of our connections, we can get your funding appeal out to a HUGE base of web users and potential contributors, including the social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as email, and thus you will bring in much more money than you would likely get if you tried to do this on your own."
But they have to make a profit for offering this service, and to do so they charge a fee, a percentage of the funds that people raise from using, and gaining money in, their GoFundMe accounts. Currently that fee is 2.9%.
Here's a bit more detail (a reasonably short read) on the platform and its operations for those interested:
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/how-does-gofundme-work-fees/Using accounts ("campaigns") to seek money for overwhelming medical bills is a very common reason for people using this service. And this quote from the Wikipedia article on GoFundMe is revealing, though maybe also a bit controversial in its last sentence:
"GoFundMe has stated that they are the "leader in online medical fundraising". One in three campaigns is intended to raise funds for medical costs, with about 250,000 campaigns for a total of $650 million in contributions each year. This is attributed, in part, to failures in the United States healthcare system in which GoFundMe is used to bridge the gap." Inevitably a good many of the "campaigns" include financial crises due to cancer bills. And there are cases of pleas for financial help due to PCa costs.
An example of that:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/my-prostate-cancer-treatmentsAt this point I feel the need to say that I'm not advocating that anyone contribute to any GoFundMe account, which would probably be a violation of forum rules if I did so. But I do believe it's a worthwhile topic for a general discussion, especially when it involves, as the above example demonstrates, people using the GoFundMe approach to get help with their PCa costs.
My first thought in learning more about
GoFundMe was that it seemed like a kind of "electronic begging." Or am I being too harsh in such an assessment? Is it more like a reasonable use of modern technology for charitable purposes?
Indeed, my review turned up what seemed like some noble funding accomplishments due to successful use of GoFundMe "campaigns." So perhaps, in appealing to the better aspects of human nature, it is arguably successful.
For example, if it helps the man with PCa in the above link, then more power to it.
Setting up an account is pretty simple. They even describe how to set up one specifically for cancer patients:
https://www.gofundme.com/start/cancer-fundraising(Again, not advocating anything, just showing what their site can do).
It still strikes me as something of an oddity, this GoFundMe thing, but maybe I'm just behind the times. But apparently it has been going on since 2008, so maybe it's got something going for it after all.