I love this story about how an internet campaign raised $10,000 dollars within four days to save a family from being evicted from
their home. It shows how creative America is with its use of the internet in rallying support and raising desperately needed funds.
Under the headline, "Help a Family Keep Their Home," Jaki Greer pleaded with readers of her LiveJournal to donate just $1 dollar each to save her neighbours and friends Ebony and Daniel Sampson from losing their home.
This is how Fast Company reported Greer’s impressive campaign:
Greer talked about how her friends Ebony and Daniel Sampson were about to loose their home if they could not come up with $10K by December 8th. Ebony was a stay at home mom, caring for their two children, one with special needs that required medical care and special schooling. Daniel had recently lost his job. Ebony was also expecting a third child. Greer wrote “This bothers me because it shouldn’t happen to them. It shouldn’t be happening to anyone. But it hits me personally because she’s done so much to help so many people. After all, they’re both ministers who scraped together the money they had to help other people and now they don’t have anyone to turn to.”
Greer also launched an aggressive local media campaign. She called local news stations and asked them to do a human interest story on Ebony and Daniel Sampson’s dire situation. She asked fellow bloggers to reach out to the local news stations as well and blog about the Sampsons and the fundraising campaign. Furthermore, Greer invested time engaging her followers on LiveJournal by responding to their comments and updating them on the status of reaching the $10K goal. Greer’s plan worked. Within 48 hours bloggers posted articles about the Sampsons’ story and Channel 11 WBALTV did a profile about the effort to help them raise $10K to pay their over due mortgage. Greer met her $10K 
fundraising goal in just four days.
With unemployment in the UK set to soar next year leading to a threat of increased homelessness, and Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps‘ warning that 44% of mortgage holders are worried about being able to meet their mortgage payments over the next 12 months, I wonder how successful Greer’s campaign would be in the UK.
I wonder if we are as generous in the UK. Would you cough up to save a family from losing their home, particularly if they were strangers? This might be a one-off because the campaign was masterminded by an internet savvy friend, but it is still incredibly impressive. It certainly reminds us of the huge positive potential the internet can have if used cleverly.
Bravo Jaki Greer.
Ellee, I think this is a fantastic and kind-hearted idea. We need something to help the many families who are going to be evicted from their homes thanks to Brownian economic policy.
Maybe you could do a campaign for me as I need a new car to get to work as my old one was destroyed by a car crash…
I would be very grateful…
Happy New year and God Bless us one an’ all!!
Happy New Year, Ellee x
Sadly, they are one of many.
Happy New Year, Ellee.
There will be a lot of people in trobule, I’m not sure the internet could help more than a handful.
Here’s wishing you and yours a happy new year Ellee
I would cough up, if I had the money, to save a SINGLE PERSON from losing their home, even if they were a stranger.
Happy New Year, Ellee!
What a wonderful story to end the year Ellee. I’m sure the same thing would happen in the UK. People are amazingly generous when they are given the opportunity.
Happy New Year to your and your family Ellee.
A heartwarming story Ellee – glad that this onehad a happy ending. Happy new year to you!
Some might be altruistic to cough up but would not be in a financial position, themselves, to do so .
Hi Elle,
I guess when there’s only ONE, it’s fine
But imagine you had one million families facing eviction if they could not pay $10,000
Hard to imagine that ‘communities’ especially in north america after the europeans arrived, started by the community building homes for members of the community, from the surrounding resources ie: wood, etc …
and quickly rebuilt any burnt by indian raids.
Happy New Year!
The lie is always that there is not “enough”! A dollar from one million people is one million dollars eh?
Good post. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
Ellee: First off, Happy New Year to you! Yes, this is unprecedented!! There are still good people in this world!!!!:D)
A lovely idea.
It all depends on the scale of rescue as there is only so much people can afford and it seems that the Government will be redistributing funds from an ever dwindling pool of taxpayers anyway. Worst of all they are pilfering from prudent savers by lowering interest rates on behalf of reckless borrowers.
The other issue, I have to say, is the amount of people who have over-extended themselves. I’ve long felt inferior when faced with people flaunting new cars and bigger houses, often earning similar sums to me, “Borrowing is the new way.” It wasn’t until recently that a close friend revealed to me that he’d lied on his mortgage application and run up a 30k credit card bill as well.
I don’t feel inclined to sacrifice my family’s modest standard of living to subsidise someone else’s greed and stupidity. It seems that I’m going to be forced to do so regardless. I just hope there’s some benificence for me when I need it.
Happy New Year!
I don’t think I would help a family in the UK in mortgage arrears unless I knew the circumstances. I know many cases are worthy but many are not – people have squandered money and will continue to do so. Clearly if I had loads of money I might do so, but I choose how to spend the little I have wisely, including charitable donations.
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What a great story. It makes me feel good to hear that there is such kindness in the world today.
Todd, yes, me too, that’s why I wanted to write about it.