We have all seen the crowdfunding stories. We share them every day not always knowing the back story to the funding and whether the story is true. You have even seen national stories about how people start a go fund me on false pretenses and make tens of thousands of dollars off their scam.
Fund the First is a crowd funding service specifically for First Responders. According to their website, Fund the first is:
Fund the First is the first online verified financial contribution platform designed by first responders, for first responders. Every day, first responders put their lives on the line and so many fellow citizens want to be able to help them when there is a need – whether it is to help families when a father or mother die in the line of duty, provide financial support directly to first responders who suffer injury or illness or even to help provide a financial jump start to a first responder looking to start a new business.
Unfortunately, too often criminals and scammers like to take advantage of people’s generosity and create fake online donation campaigns using the likeness of first responders. Fund the First stops the cycle of scams and corruption by fully verifying every campaign to ensure that it is legitimate and proceeds go directly to the first responder or his/her family.
https://info.fundthefirst.com/faq/
Fund the First uses a service called ID.me to verify that the people starting the fundraising are First Responders. This incudes the Military, Police, Fire Department, EMS Providers, 911 Telecommunicators, Nurses, Doctors, and pretty much anyone who protects you or saves your life.
The process of using ID.Me verification helps to let you know that the person or persons you are helping are actually first responders, and not scammers trying to get you to donate based on the fact that the person in need or looking for help is a First Responder.
So the next issue would be how much of the money donated goes to the person you are trying to help? According to Fund the First,
92% of every dollar contributed to a campaign goes to the beneficiary, whether the campaign has reached its goal or not. Approximately 3% goes to payment processing, which is the same across all fundraising platforms, with 5% additional for the cost of providing the IDme verification process and operating the platform.
In comparison, other crowdfunding site fees range from 8-13 percent on average, with some hiding their fees as “tips” of as much as 10% that are automatically added to a contribution, and very difficult to remove. Plus, there is of course the additional hidden cost of giving money to a campaign that may be fraudulent because of the lack of validation or verification.
Verification, validation and transparency are the foundational cornerstones of the platform we have specifically designed to help first responders.
https://info.fundthefirst.com/faq/
If you are looking for a great way to be able to help First Responders who may be having a hard time, or who have suffered a loss, please check out FundtheFirst.com
