Carol Chen and Shawn Fang of Sutton Group Realty Services in Oakville, Ont. are supporters of their local hospital. When the COVID-19 crisis escalated in Canada, Chen and Fang, along with four other team volunteers, launched the Oakville Chinese Community Response Fund, raising $30,000 within just two days for the Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. The total has since passed $35,000. The team has promoted the GoFundMe campaign on Twitter, Facebook, WeChat and through direct connections.

“We asked our local MP, MPP and a regional councillor to promote our fundraiser,” says Fang. “The hospital foundation endorsed us in their official account; therefore we built up a lot of creditability to attract donors. We also set up a social media group for donors to receive updates.”

Fang discovered that it takes a few weeks for a GoFundMe campaign to get up and running and then deliver funds to the hospital. Knowing time was of the essence, many of the volunteers made significant personal donations to purchase PPE.