Hundreds of Myrtle Beach residents look to crowdfunding sites for financial help

When Nicole Moore learned that her friend, 14-year-old Taizaun Dewitt of Longs, was killed in May, she felt she needed to help in any way that she could – all the way from Texas, where she is on active duty in the U.S. Air Force.

“I did a little bit of searching on the web to find different ways that I could help from afar seeing as how I was unable to return home at the time,” she said in an email. “During the loss of a child, the last thing a family should have to worry about is funeral costs, so I felt this was a great way to help the family out and ease their pain during their time of grieving.”

Moore contacted Dewitt’s relatives and set up an account raising money to help pay for the funeral through GoFundMe, one of several websites connecting folks raising money to donors.

For the last few years, anyone sitting at a computer can help pay funeral costs, medical fees, or help someone start a business through a variety of crowdfunding websites.

A search for “Myrtle Beach, SC” on the popular crowdfunding site www.GoFundMe.com resulted in 490 fundraising campaigns in the general area.

Moore set up her GoFundMe account so that the money donated through the website went directly to an account for Dewitt’s relatives so no one else – including Moore – could have access to the funds.

“Those who donated were a sort of melting pot, most were from the community of either Longs/North Myrtle Beach, but there were also many who just donated out of the kindness of their heart,” Moore said. “Many donations were also received from Horry County Schools system, showing and giving support during the loss of one of their own.”

Dewitt’s family could not be reached for comment.

Crowdfunding sites have raised more then $1.1 billion in personal donations so far in 2015, said Sara Margulis, founder of www.Plumfund.com.

Margulis first founded a crowdfunding site for newlyweds to pay for their honeymoon and expanded into personal fundraising campaigns about two years ago.

The average amount raised on all valid Plumfund campaigns in 2015 is $1,840.43 and the highest amount raised by one campaign is $203,722 for the medical costs of a man who was in a snowboarding accident, Margulis said.

“The popularity of the platforms give it credibility,” she said, adding that etiquette experts say that giving money instead of gifts during weddings or time of need is not in poor taste. “There’s been social proof and validations from experts.”

Terry Pettijohn, chairman of the psychology department at Coastal Carolina University, said he believes people using crowdfunding is getting more popular for a number of reasons – including the use of social media as a way to make users be the center of attention.

“There’s a sense of identity tied to it,” Pettijohn said. “I wouldn’t call it narcissism, per se, but it’s the idea that you’re the most important. You make yourself the most prominent.”

Pettijohn said he’s begun to see academics use crowdfunding – through sites such as http://experiment.com – to fund research, sometimes in place of grants.

There is a campaign on Experiment.com created by marine science professor Eric Koepfler and a senior at Coastal to measure the effect of coastal light pollution on nesting female sea turtles as well as baby loggerhead turtles’ ability to find the ocean. They are seeking $5,000 and had raised $4,012 by the time the campaign ended Aug. 9.

Koepfler said he expected to purchase the necessary research equipment within a few weeks.

Margulis said the majority of campaigns on Plumfund are for hardship fundraising, such as health issues or funeral costs.

“With hardship [campaigns], the beneficiary isn’t usually the one who sets up the account,” she said. “That seems to work a lot better than someone just saying ‘give me money.’”

The nearly 500 campaigns in the Myrtle Beach area include a number of calls for help for health and funeral costs, as well as some non-crucial requests – such as helping a Myrtle Beach resident get to Israel to see her best friend get married.

That campaign was created in March 2014 by Natalie Samar with the hope of raising $3,000 by the wedding that April. She had raised $2,165 by late March. It was unclear if she attended the wedding and Samar could not be reached for comment.

Some also have turned to GoFundMe to help launch ideas and businesses, including Lindsay Wyrick. Wyrick and her husband have begun the process of starting a nonprofit that is designed to raise awareness about the plight of children – especially older children – in the foster care system in America.

Wyrick said she and her husband are adopting a child and during that process she saw a need for children between the ages of 8 and 17.

“This is to give them a voice,” she said. “We want to get the word out about resources that are available.”

Wyrick created an initial campaign about two months ago to raise $5,000 for what she hopes will become the American Orphan nonprofit. As of Friday, the campaign had raised $1,430.

Wyrick said she wasn’t sure about using GoFundMe to get help with her nonprofit.

“There are so many GoFundMe [campaigns] out there,” she said. “I didn’t want people to say, ‘oh, another one?’ I, myself, think that when I see one on social media. And they can be for really legitimate to those that might not be so meaningful.”

Wyrick said she decided to use the crowdfunding site because it gave people that she knows who live outside of the area a way to help if they wanted to.

“Years ago, if someone wanted to help they would have to write a check and get the address and find a stamp, even,” Wyrick said. “Who has a stamp anymore? ... The ease of [GoFundMe] was something that drew us in.”

Wyrick said she’d never used a site like GoFundMe to solicit donors for anything, nor has she used it to donate.

GoFundMe launched in May 2010 and hundreds of thousands of people have raised over $1.25 billion from 13 million donors since its launch, according to the group’s website.

Other popular crowdfunding sites include www.Kickstarter.com for creative projects and www.Indiegogo.com for both professional and personal fundraising campaigns.

“People want to help other people,” Pettijohn said. “And we’re more likely to help people that we know – especially if all they have to do is a little.”

This story was originally published August 21, 2015 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Hundreds of Myrtle Beach residents look to crowdfunding sites for financial help."