ImpactGuru.com, an integrated healthcare financing platform, has reported a one-of-its-kind, rare disease online donation crowdfunding movement with 12,00,000+ donors raising Rs 125+ crore through 1200+ rare disease crowdfunding campaigns in 14 months (January 2021 to February 2022), for patients fighting rare diseases like Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA type 1 & 2), Gaucher’s disease, Pompe’s disease, rare forms of cancer and others. 

The findings of ‘ImpactGuru.com’s crowdfunding movement For Rare Disease Report’ were revealed at the first edition of Impact Guru Excellence in Healthcare Summit and Awards 2022, on Rare Disease Day.

The report says:

• During these 14 months, up to 85 per cent of the fundraisers on ImpactGuru.com for rare diseases belonged to middle-class and lower-middle-class families. These families lacked access to financial funds to afford the Rs 16 crore (~$ 2.1million) Zolgensma gene therapy and other medicines that are potential treatments prescribed by Indian doctors for patients fighting rare diseases. 
• Nationally, patients based in Mumbai have raised the highest at Rs 35 crore followed by patients residing in Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Delhi.
• Among ImpactGuru.com’s 1200+ rare disease campaigns, over 80 per cent of donations came from resident Indian donors.
• On average, ImpactGuru.com donors donated Rs 1000 towards such rare disease campaigns 
• The single highest donation received on one of the rare disease fundraisers was Rs 56 lakh
• One of the rare disease crowdfunding campaigns witnessed a record-breaking 265,000+ Indian donors contributing towards achieving the goal amount 
• An innovative approach used for obtaining donations was printing the QR Code on T-Shirts. WhatsApp and Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter provided a secure channel for donations from generous well-wishers online. Newer payment methods, Paytm and Google Pay were most frequently used.