GoFundMe and Kickstarter Are Not Your Personal Bank Account

GoFundMe and Kickstarter are great tools to fund some really cool ideas. However, lately, it seems that EVERYONE has a crowd funding site set up for something, A lot of the time, these are for trivial things or personal gain. And this is why we can't have nice things.

A little over a year ago, a friend of mine set up a site in order to help raise money to help pay for his bills while he was recovering from surgery to remove a brain tumor. Just a couple weeks ago, I posted about the teen who wanted to go to Legoland as his last wish while he was battling cancer for a 4th time. These are the reason crowd funding sites were made. Both of the mentioned sites hit their goal because the community rallied together to help these folks out.

There are some people who treat these sites as their own bank accounts. I've seen several friends make dozens of attempts to raise money to make a car payment (which they could afford had they not made poor financial decisions) and just recently, someone created a site seeking to raise over $100,000 to open a shop with zero background in running a business. If there are other options to take, such as applying for a bank loan, do that instead of asking friends and family to fund your idea. Nobody likes to have a friend who is constantly asking to borrow $5, so why would they like it if you are asking for $5 over 100 times?

Crowdfunding is a great tool when it is going to help someone in need or help a community. Don't abuse the system though. Before you make a site, ask yourself "Do I really need to do this or am I just being lazy." If the answer is lazy, don't do it!

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to find a way to crowdfund my student loans away.