KrowdKidz has announced its crowdfunding portal designed to help families challenged with infertility to find donors willing to help defray the costs of infertility treatments, surrogacy and adoption. The portal launched today with three initial families seeking help. Donors have the ability to contribute as little as $10 to a family.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 10% of women in the United States ages 15–44 years have difficulty getting pregnant or staying pregnant. This equates to 6.1 million women. Roughly one-third of infertility cases are due to women’s problems, another one-third are due to the man, and the remaining one-third are due to of a mixture of male and female problems or by unknown problems.
“Infertility brings tremendous emotional stress and financial strain. Costs for assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments in the United States can range from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. Surrogacy and adoption costs can be similar depending on a variety of factors,” said Jeff Crump , KrowdKidz founder.
Kara and Brian, an infertile couple from Myrtle Beach, S.C. said, “We are so thankful to have found KrowdKidz. This organization is truly a blessing!” The couple is seeking $16,000 to cover the cost of in vitro fertilization (IVF). The couple has no medication insurance and has spent more than $8,000 of their own funds attempting to have a child.
Crump said, “We know that crowdfunding works. In fact, actor Zach Braff — from Oz: The Great and Powerful and Scrubs fame — recently used crowdfunding to achieve a $2 million funding goal in three days from more than 28,000 backers to finance a follow-up film to his 2004, Garden State. However, unlike Braff, the families seeking funding on KrowdKidz don’t have the financial cushions a successful career in Hollywood provides.”
“This method of crowd funding is a great opportunity for those of us suffering from infertility to realize our dreams of starting a family. The fact that this is dedicated to family building makes this a premiere avenue for crowd funding to overcome the numerous financial setbacks that infertility introduces,” said Chris and Candace, an infertile couple from Portsmouth, Va. seeking $10,800 for surrogacy.
Unlike a generalized crowdfunding portal like Kickstarter, which Braff used, KrowdKidz serves families suffering from infertility exclusively. Due to this unique focus, donors have the opportunity to become emotionally connected. “Knowing a baby was born or a child adopted because of your support is felt on a much deeper level than backing the making of a film,” said Crump.
Donors have the ability to browse donation requests based on factors such as the category of the request (e.g. treatment type, surrogacy, adoption), parental orientation (e.g. gay, lesbian or straight) or religious orientation. “We felt it important to call out these demographic factors so it is clear that we support the uniqueness of families. As long as the funding request is relevant to our service, all the fields are completed in the request and the content is well-written it will appear on the site. We do not have a filtering or selection process,” added Crump.
Through its partnerships, KrowdKidz is able to provide additional benefits to families. One example of this is author and infertility advocate, Fran Meadows , who is providing the e-book version of her “The Truth Behind the Secret ‘Infertility'” for free during the first week of the site’s launch. Visitors can use a link available on the site to request a free copy. “Once a family opens up about infertility they begin to realize they are not the only ones going through it; they often feel the pain of emotion they’ve been holding in finally releases,” said Meadows.
Rick and Becky, a Maryland couple seeking to adopt domestically stated, “KrowdKidz is such a unique idea in the way that it’s not only an avenue to crowd source the funds for the very expensive and emotionally draining journey of adoption and infertility treatments, but there is also a sense of community with others who have been through a similar experience with trying to start a family.
“KrowdKidz has also partnered with the Los Angeles Surrogacy Center, which is providing a free 30-minute telephone consultation to all families who create a surrogacy donation request. “As a full service surrogacy agency, we regularly witness the financial challenges these families are faced with,” said Dawn Marmorstein , founder of the Los Angeles Surrogacy Center. “Our partnership with KrowdKidz enables us to extend our professional oversight and management support services to include this unique funding source. This is an exciting opportunity for our clients who dream of creating a family.”