Crowdfunding sites have spread their tentacles into ever wider areas, whether that’s funding civic projects or university education.  An interesting new area is being taken by an Australian site called People Pledge.

They’re a site setup to help people secure financial support for medical treatment they may require.  The site is touted as the first of its kind and offers a platform for family and friends to support their loved ones in their time of need.  The site claims to offer support in the following circumstances:

1. Struggling to pay for medical bills and other medical expenses due to lack of money and increased medical costs.
2. With unexpected medical emergencies such as funeral costs.
3. To provide their loved ones with the best quality of medical care.

Getting started is very similar to sites such as JustGiving.  Each user is asked to create a pledge page, which acts as their account profile.  On that page they’re asked to publish details about themselves and their request.  It’s not as intuitive as JustGiving however as you have to email your content to the site owners rather than having access to update things yourself.

Once setup, its your job to then promote your page to friends and loved ones via the usual social media channels and so on.

In many senses it’s very similar to sites such as JustGiving, but it seems it’s trying to piggy back on the wave of sites being setup offering crowdfunding facilities.  The main advantage of these sites is that they tend to attract people from outside of your own circle of friends and loved ones.  It’s not at all clear that this is the case with PeoplePledge, which makes it kinda hard to distinguish from the various other fundraising sites on the market already.

So whilst it’s an interesting idea to focus purely on funding medical expenses, I feel it has some way to go before it can fulfill its true potential.