These six couples share what it's like to raise money through crowdfunding web sites for adoptions and fertility treatments.
Hopeful parents to be are turning to crowdfunding sites to raise thousands of dollars from friends, family and even complete strangers.
Dr. C. Terence Lee, a fertility specialist based in Brea, Calif., flashes a photo of a beaming infant across a projection screen and announces: "This baby was bought with bitcoins."
Sarah Dvorak was desperate. The former retail executive had depleted her savings accounts, borrowed from family members, and secured a microloan from a local development group to launch Mission Cheese, a San Francisco café that would specialize in domestic products like Minnesota-made Camembert and a silky sheep's-milk cheese from Northern California. But three weeks before opening day last spring, she still didn't have refrigerated cases to store and display her fare. Despite having cobbled together $225,000 to start her business, she had come up $12,000 short. So she turned to Indiegogo, a San Francisco-based site that allowed her to appeal directly to the public for money. "Within one month, I had the funding I needed," Dvorak says. "I was in tears."
89-year old Pearl Malkin launches a business making her own line of decorated "Happy Canes" and uses Kickstarter to raise $3,500.
