Building a family through crowdfunding

The Reddicks:

http://www.gofundme.com/9mdwbk

Doctors never believed Justin and Lindsey Martindale’s little boy would make it. Tests showed a genetic disorder, but aborting him was never an option.

“If he was going to fight, so were we,” Lindsey Martindale said.

But just one day after he was born on May 26, 2013, by Cesarean section, Asher died.

Now, after nearly a year of trying to conceive the old-fashioned way and their arms still empty, the Martindales are trying to adopt.

What they and other couples struggling to start a family have discovered, however, is that adoption and fertility treatments, which can each exceed $25,000, can be out of their financial reach.

And so like others looking for ways to finance their dreams, metro Atlanta couples such as the Martindales are turning to crowdfunding for help.

Crowdfunding is the practice of paying for a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet.

“The increase in people asking on social media for money is a direct outgrowth of the enormous success and publicity of sites like Kickstarter,” said Paul Levinson, professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University, and author of “New New Media,” a scholarly look at new social media, now in its second edition.

“If artists and writers can ask the world for money to do their work, why can’t anyone ask friends and even complete strangers for money to have a child?” Levinson said. “Everyone has an urge to be generous at one time or another. These new social media sites allow people to fulfill that urge, which makes them feel good about themselves, any time they like.”

Lindsey and Justin Martindales of Marietta want to adopt. So do Jennifer and Mike Lanxton of Rockmart and Audrey and Kyle Beckman of Fayetteville.

Meanwhile, Erica Reddick, 32, and her husband, Marc, of College Park are hoping to raise enough to pay for fertility treatments.

All of the couples have launched fundraising campaigns on GoFundMe.com, which charges users a 5 percent fee, deducted from each donation to cover its operating expenses.

“I’m a middle school teacher and he’s a social worker, but it doesn’t add up,” Erica Reddick said. “It’s very hard to ask for help when you’re the one who normally gives. But after talking with colleagues and friends, they convinced us to try it. The worst thing that can happen is it doesn’t get funded.”

The Reddicks, Martindales and other metro Atlanta couples each hope to raise $25,000 through GoFundMe, considered the premier website for financing life events such as weddings, confirmations and treatments for illnesses, Levinson said.

Although Kickstarter, founded in 2009, was initiated to fund creative projects such as movies, books, music and video games, Levinson said crowdfunding is just another part of the revolution in which people at large are taking their businesses, lives and creative works into their own hands, rather than seeking money from banks, big corporations, or governments.

The Martindales have raised the most money by far — $17,750 within three months of launching their campaign in late May.

“I didn’t want people to think we were going to sit back and wait for the money to come in, so we’ve also held garage sales,” Lindsey Martindale said.

That netted the couple $3,000 of their total donations so far. And a silent auction and pig roast held Saturday raised more than $2,000.

The Martindales said at first they thought financing their dream for a child this way was a bit unconventional. But when they considered they’d gotten an email seeking donations for a dog’s surgery, they thought why not try it.

Still, there is a downside to crowdfunding, said Chip Manning, director of the Babson Center for Global Commerce at Sewanee: The University of the South.

“It is wide open for excessive hype, misleading claims and downright fraud in the way people raise capital, especially when one considers the regulatory environment that has evolved in our primary capital markets in the U.S. and elsewhere.”

According to a February article by Bloomberg, industry researcher Massolution estimated that global crowdfunding almost doubled between 2012 and 2013 to $5.1 billion.

“Given the scale of people participating or having access to participate … I fully expect that this marketplace will continue to grow,” Manning said. “Moreover, I expect that it is getting large enough that regulation is sure to happen.”

But until crowdfunding regulation becomes a reality, Manning said people should limit their donations to nominal amounts.