Jennifer Anderson, 33, knew her entire life that she would be unable to have kids naturally. But when she and her husband decided to try in vitro fertilization, the price was far higher than she ever expected, and it seemed as though having a family would be out of her reach.

“IVF is expensive, and for that type of procedure they won’t let you make payments,” Anderson says. “It costs nearly $20,000 and they want their money upfront, before the procedure begins.”

Then one day when she was browsing Facebook, Anderson came across a link to the crowdfunding site GoFundMe, where people could ask for money from friends, family and strangers to help fund anything from medical bills and college tuition to vacations and weddings. “I thought about it, but because I’ve never gone public with the fact that I couldn’t have children, I was nervous,” she says. “As a woman, it’s a hard thing to tell people.”

But after speaking with her husband, they decided to create a crowdfunding campaign titled the Anderson Baby Fund. “I created the page and sat on it for a month before I decided to launch it,” Anderson says. “I figured that if we were going into debt to have a family, we could use all the help we can get.”

Anderson is one of thousands of people who use websites such as GoFundMe or​ Indiegogo​​ to raise money for medical treatment – and it’s no wonder why. A 2013 analysis by the personal finance website NerdWallet found that 1.7 million Americans live in households that will declare bankruptcy due to medical bills, and 10 million insured​ Americans ages 19 to 64 ​face bills they are unable to pay. Part of that reason stems from high deductibles as a result of the Affordable Care Act, says Debra Lowe​, administrative director of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s revenue cycle. ​“People who have historically had insurance weren’t used to having a high out-of-pocket expense,” Lowe says. “We’re seeing people with $5,000 or $10,000 deductibles, which we really hadn’t before.”

While high medical bills​ are a major part of the problem, Americans' inability to save further compounds it. A 2011 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that a quarter of Americans could not come up with $2,000 in 30 days in the case of an emergency, and 19 percent would only be able to do by selling or pawning possessions. “It’s no surprise that more and more people are turning to crowdfunding,” Lowe says.

One campaign titled “Juan Carlos family needs you!” has raised more than $125,000 in the past five days to help pay for the medical bills of a cyclist who was hit by a car in California. However, how successful your campaign is depends on how good you are at getting the word out, Lowe says. “If you have friends who are willing to contribute, it can be great,” she says.

Anderson shares her page on Facebook and Twitter frequently to try and solicit donations, but is worried she's just clogging up her friends’ feeds. “I don’t want to annoy people with my problem,” she says.

Since starting her campaign in February, Anderson has raised more than $5,000 from 47 donations, the largest of which have been two separate donations of $1,000. “It makes me feel blessed that people are willing to give,” she says. “When someone who doesn’t know me is willing to give to help us accomplish something that just often happens to other people by accident, the feeling is overwhelming.”

Anderson can withdraw money at any time, which she's found beneficial as she and her husband began the fertility process. “We had to do a trial run to see if we were a candidate for IVF, and we’re already in $3,000 just from that,” she says.

[Read: Socked With an Out-of-Network Medical Bill?]



So what should you do if you want to start a crowdfunding campaign of your own? Start with a heartfelt, personal story, says Lexi Georgiadis​, a representative with IndieGogo. "Making the campaign really personal is key, especially for medical bills," she says. "You want to give people something they can connect with."

Next, prepare to put in a lot of work, says Kelsea Little,​ a customer happiness agent with GoFundMe. ​"The more effort you put into your GoFundMe campaign, the more you will get out of it," she says. "A successful campaign takes frequent sharing on social media, and asking others to share as well."

Finally, be sure to update your contributors on your progress. "If you’re proactive about the campaign, post updates regularly and write to the people who contributed – that helps encourage people to share it," Georgiadis says.

However, raising money using GoFundMe or Indiegogo isn’t free. GoFundMe takes a total of​ 7.9 percent plus 30 cents from each donation as a fee, while Indiegogo charges either a 4 percent or 9 percent fee, depending on the type of campaign you choose.