GoFundMe fundraiser suggestions?

I am NOT asking for $. I am here for brainstorming about ways to get "the message out" to those that can possibly help my wife, mother-in-law and me.

Our house was burglarized on Thanksgiving Day. There is a famous saying "everything but the kitchen sink" but in this case, they took the sink. The burglars literally took everything of monetary value - including the surveillance system. I have had to setup a GoFundMe to try to get enough $ together to get my wife and I back on our feet. The campaign is for <$3000; it is just enough for us to get the equipment we need to start working again. I lost all my PhD research so I have to start that again soon or just give up on it.

I have attempted to use Facebook posts and direct messaging with friends/family asking for help. This has met with limited success. What other forms of social media or types of posts would you recommend we try to spread the word to those that are in a charitable mood? Would any of you be willing to look at the campaign with a critical eye to see if there is anything I should change or do that will help us reach our goal?

I am NOT posting the campaign here. If you want to see the campaign, message me directly.

I am trying to not break any forum rules but I need some help figuring out what to do. If this post is crossing the line, I am sorry and will delete it unless the mods do that for me first.

No matter what, I want to wish to you all to have Happy Holidays.

 

Let me start by saying thank you for the questions.

First, lets start with the location issue. I am in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico and have been since August 2015. I use VPN so I can watch things like Netflix and for privacy. That is why you are showing South Carolina, etc. If you want a direct dial number, copy of the police report, etc, ask and it is yours. The police report is already on the campaign. I removed my address from the posted police reports, last names of others and signatures for obvious reasons.

Next, about insurance. I am a student living on a student's budget. I cancelled my insurance recently so I could afford to bring my Mother-In-Law down from Alaska. I just haven't had the funds to get a new policy.

Thank you about telling me about the smell factor. I appreciate it. I will see if I can get someone else to take the torch to get this going. My biggest problem is that when I have asked for help in the past, I hear the chirping of crickets. Hardly anyone will respond to it even if I have helped them in the past.

If you are wondering if this is truly a scam, go to Groups.io and search for CuernAds. There are a lot of posts about our burglary there. You can also contact St. Michael's Church in Cuernavaca about what happened to us.

Now that you have all that info and if I cannot get anyone to take the mantle, how would you go about getting that information out so people will realize it is not a scam?

 

Feel free to be skeptical. I understand that. In Mexico it is hard to get any support in instances like this. If I was back home in the United States, I would be able to do what you said. As I said in my previous message, I use VPN for all things for privacy and to watch Netflix.

Here is a link to the CuernAds mailing group where they discuss this happening. https://groups.io/g/CuernAds/topics

It is last posted on page 3 but you can see more posts there. One such topic is linked here:

https://groups.io/g/CuernAds/topic/link_to_the_videos_of_farmer/28324539?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,40,28324539

and another here:

https://groups.io/g/CuernAds/topic/steve_and_angel_farmer/28311845?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,60,28311845

Should I put those links in the GoFundMe?

Thank you for your skepticism because it helps me understand where I need to go to get this going. So far, I need to stop my campaign and ask someone else to start one and have them put evidence that it really happened and maybe the links to the other expat forum posts. Is that enough in your opinion?

 

Thank you. If you went to the CuernAds Mailing group, they talked about doing a GoFundMe for us but nothing materialized from it. Tamara is no longer working at St. Michaels - she retired and spends most of her time in Mexico City. I don't know the new one very well - Doug something. I have thought about having the Reverend Ball help but haven't approached him.

Yes, Cuernavaca is a great city. When we first moved here, we lived in a condo across the street from CostCo on Avenida Domingo Diez. We then moved to Vista Hermosa and should have stayed. My wife and I decided to move to a place in Vincente Estrada Cajigal near Parque Alameda. That is where we are now.

I am working on helping people with their computers after the Earthquake. Morelos actually had greater damage than DF but the DF has 20M+ people and Cuernavaca's metro has 800k so you know where the news stories came from predominately.

Finally, I have direction to take with this issue. I am going to ask the Balls or another of the "major" expats here to set it up for us so we can gain traction. I wonder if a former Playmate of the Month would be a good person to turn to for help.

 

And a whole slew of other things. I did get a donation from the Vestry that will help us get new passports.

I sent you a PM with a little bit more info. Thank you again for any help you can contribute to helping us getting back on our feet with a GoFundMe that doesn't seem like a scam.

By the way, you SHOULD notice that I said I didn't want $ in the first post. I asked for help getting my GoFundMe up and going. That alone should help alleviate some of the "scam" warning you might have had.

 

Sure, you are a target because think that you own Ferrari's or have a lot of $. Please note that I didn't ask for money in my post. I asked for brainstorming.

My GoFundMe site has video attached to it from YouTube but we are having a Youtube outage here. Further, I said I wasn't going to put the link on here and won't. If someone else has the link, the mods approve of it being put on here, then so be it. I gave my word that I won't do it and I won't.

If you want to view the 4 videos before they disconnected the router and the police reports, here is a link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=11akwSvoPbsNoPYSAIth2rHl0JNmzVfh4

This is NOT a paid product endorsement but I LOVE Zmodo cameras. Those are the ones I had and they recorded directly to the Internet. If that didn't happen, I wouldn't even have those 4 short videos.

 

I believe I have convinced the Mod that I am real and my campaign was for a real event. Having said that, I am going to give up on the fundraiser. The negativity I have received and the attacks on me that further victimized me have made it so I am just going to give up. I know that I am going to have to drop out of my PhD program and that just sucks. I am not trying to guilt trip anyone; I am just stating the facts. There is no point in continuing because the funds are just not there to start again.

I hope you all have happy holidays. Mine and my family's are going to be less than stellar.

Mod, delete my account. I cannot figure out how to do it right this second because I cannot concentrate on anything.