“Not by Money Alone”: Social Support Opportunities in Medical Crowdfunding Campaigns

Abstract

Medical crowdfunding helps patients receive financial support from their distributed social networks online. However, little is known about who the patient's supporters are, what support they provide, and why. To address this, we interviewed fifteen people involved in medical crowdfunding, including both beneficiaries and supporters. We found that support networks were larger than beneficiaries expected, with strangers offering support. Supporters offered not only monetary but also volunteering contributions including campaign creation, promotion, and external support. However, the emphasis medical crowdfunding interfaces place on monetary contributions led to social issues. Beneficiaries' close friends felt pressured to donate money they could not afford to give. And beneficiaries promoting the campaign worried they would be judged for requesting money. To mitigate these concerns, we suggest making the variety of volunteering contributions more visible and discuss the design challenges of including such signals in existing systems.