You focus on getting better. Let your people help with the bills.

Even with insurance, a health crisis gets expensive fast. Deductibles, out-of-network care, travel to treatment, and time off work pile up while you are just trying to get through the week. A medical fundraiser lets the people who love your family help carry the cost.

Free to start. Every dollar you raise goes to your family.

Medical fundraiser

Support for the Alvarez family

Grand Rapids, MI
$18,940 raised of $35,000
212 supporters
Update from Dan: Round two of chemo starts Monday. Thank you for every gift and every meal.
Funds go directly to your family
Set up in about 10 minutes
$1,000s
what out-of-pocket maximums often run each year, even insured
Weeks
how fast the bills start arriving after a hospital stay
10 min
to set up your fundraiser and share it
Yours
every dollar raised goes to your family
Why families fundraise

Even with insurance, the math of a health crisis doesn't work.

These are the most common reasons families start a fundraiser for medical bills. If one of them sounds like your kitchen table right now, you are in the right place.

The meter resets every January

Deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums start over each year. A treatment plan that crosses into January can mean paying the hardest part twice.

The right doctor is out of network

When it is your health or your child's, you go where the best care is. Out-of-network specialists and second opinions come with bills insurance barely touches.

Treatment is far from home

Gas, flights, parking garages, and weeks of hotels near the hospital. Getting to the care can cost nearly as much as the care itself.

Income drops as costs spike

The patient stops working, or a spouse cuts hours to drive and care. Less money comes in exactly when more goes out.

The bills outlast the treatment

Ring the bell, come home, and the statements keep arriving for months, from providers you don't even remember meeting.

Insurance only covers part of the list

Prescriptions, equipment, home care, and follow-ups all come with copays and coinsurance. Twenty percent of a big number is still a big number.

Whatever brought you here, the money stress is making a hard season harder. That is the part your people can take off your plate.

What it can cover

One fundraiser, every kind of medical cost

Donations go to your family, not to the hospital, so the money can go wherever the need is. These are the costs families most often raise for.

Hospital bills and deductibles

The big statements

Hospital stays, ER visits, scans, and the deductible and coinsurance attached to all of it. The envelopes with the most digits on them.

Surgery and treatment costs

The care itself

Surgeon and anesthesia fees, chemo and radiation, infusions, and the out-of-pocket share of every round and every follow-up procedure.

Travel, gas, and lodging

Getting to care

Flights to the specialist, gas for the daily drive, hospital parking, and a place to sleep near the person you love.

Everyday bills during recovery

Keeping life running

Rent, groceries, utilities, and childcare don't pause for illness. Many families raise as much for the household as for the hospital.

Medications and equipment

The monthly list

Prescriptions and copays, plus the wheelchair, monitor, or supplies insurance only partly covers, month after month.

Ongoing therapy and follow-up care

The long road

Physical therapy, counseling, scans, and checkups that continue long after the hospital stay ends.

A SupportNow fundraiser is not locked to a category. The money goes to your family, and your family decides what it covers, medical or not.

The invitation

Everyone keeps asking how they can help. This is a real answer.

When someone you love is sick, the people around you feel helpless. Your fundraiser gives their worry somewhere to go. Every gift is someone saying you are not doing this alone.

How it can feel

Like asking for help

  • Admitting the bills are winning
  • Asking friends for money while you are already exhausted
  • Feeling like you owe everyone who gives
  • Being the family with the medical debt
What it really is

An answer to "how can I help?"

  • Telling people what your family is actually facing
  • Giving the friends who keep asking a real way to show up
  • Letting your community carry a piece of the load
  • Being the family people are proud to stand behind
People want to help. Most just don't know how. Think about the last time someone you love let you help them. It didn't feel like a burden. It felt like trust. Your fundraiser hands that feeling to everyone who cares about your family, and every appointment you make it to, every bill that stops looming, carries a little bit of all of them.
Start Fundraising →

It starts with one link and your story.

How it works

Start your fundraiser in three steps

You don't need fundraising experience, and you don't have to be the one running it. Tell the story, share the link, and we handle the rest.

1

Tell your story

Set up takes about 10 minutes. Share what happened, what treatment looks like, and what would actually help. We guide you with prompts written for medical fundraisers.

2

Invite your people

Share one link with family, friends, church, coworkers, and neighbors. They have been waiting for something real to do. This is it.

3

Use it where it's needed

Funds go directly to your family as donations come in, no waiting to hit a goal. The hospital bill, the pharmacy, the rent. You decide.

The part nobody tells you

How families actually handle big medical bills

There is real help out there for medical debt, and most of it is slower and smaller than the bills. Here is the honest picture, so you can use every tool at once.

Fundraising stacks with everything else. Hospital financial assistance, payment plans, and bill negotiation all help, and nothing you raise stops you from pursuing them. A fundraiser fills the gap they leave, on your timeline instead of a billing department's.
The hard truth

Where the usual options fall short

  • Hospital financial assistance is real, but it is slow, means-tested, and usually covers only that hospital's own bills
  • Payment plans spread the pain over months, but it is still all your money
  • Medical credit cards add interest to a crisis, with deferred-interest traps in the fine print
  • Insurance appeals can work, but they take time and energy you may not have right now
The good news

Where families actually find relief

  • Community fundraising is the biggest single source of help for most families
  • An itemized bill is worth requesting every time. Errors are common, and hospitals correct them
  • Charity care plus your fundraiser stack, so apply for everything you qualify for
  • Your people want to give more than money. Meals, rides, and childcare count too
More than money

The same link that collects donations can organize dinner on chemo weeks.

A SupportNow fundraiser lives inside a Support Registry: money, meals, and helping hands, coordinated in one place. Supporters give what they can, sign up for what you need, and follow your updates without you retelling the story.

Donations

Every gift goes to your family

Meal signups

Dinner covered on treatment weeks

Helping hands

Rides, childcare, and yard work

Updates

Tell everyone once, in one place

Why trust us

Built for families, not fine print

SupportNow is the Official Family Support Platform. We help families rally support through life's hardest moments, and a health crisis is exactly that. Starting a fundraiser is free, and the money raised belongs to your family.

Start Fundraising →

The money is yours

Funds go to your family as donations come in. No waiting to hit a goal, no all-or-nothing.

Fast, guided setup

About 10 minutes with prompts written for medical fundraisers, plus 1-on-1 help from a real person if you want it.

One link for supporters

Donations, meal signups, updates, and thank-yous all live in one place your people already know.

Private by default

You control what you share about diagnosis and treatment, and who sees it. Always.

Questions families ask

Medical fundraiser FAQs

What medical costs can a fundraiser cover?
Anything your family needs. Hospital bills, deductibles, surgery costs, prescriptions, and travel to treatment, and also rent, groceries, and childcare while someone is out of work. Donations go to your family, not to the hospital, so your family sets the priorities.
Do we have to hit our goal to get the money?
No. Funds go to your family as donations come in, and you keep what you raise whether you pass your goal or fall short. The goal is a rallying point, not a lock on the money.
Can a friend or family member run it for us?
Yes, and it is one of the most common setups. A sibling, best friend, or coworker can create the fundraiser, post updates, and coordinate meals while the family focuses on treatment. The funds still go to the family.
Will donations affect insurance or assistance programs?
It depends on the program. Gifts can be counted differently by Medicaid, SSI, and other means-tested programs, and the rules vary by state. If your family relies on one of these, talk with your caseworker or a benefits counselor before you start raising. We can't give legal or benefits advice, but we want you to go in clear-eyed.
Is it really free?
Yes. Starting a fundraiser is free, and SupportNow charges families no platform fee. Card processors charge a small processing fee on each donation, and donors can choose to cover it with RoundUp, so your family keeps 100% of their gift.

Ready to let your people help?

Set up takes about 10 minutes. Share one link, and the people who care about your family can start giving today.

Free to start. Keep what you raise, even if you don't reach your goal.