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| CEO Robert Bodwell. Photo by Georgia State University |
Robert Bodwell is 20 years old. He's in college, he's a business major, he likes corgis, oh, and did I mention that he's CEO of his own non-profit? As well as working as a full-time student at Georgia State University, Bodwell also launched his own non-profit in January of this year. After seeing a beloved high school teacher fight cancer, Bodwell felt inspired to do what he could to help those going through the fight, by working to lessen their financial burdens. Bodwell is currently CEO and President of his non-profit "jamii fund." "Jamii" is a Swahili word that translates to "community." In the future, Bodwell hopes to use his business background to build his online community.
Read on to learn about his non-profit, and how Bodwell hopes to positively impact the lives of those with hefty medical finances. Comment below and be part of the conversation!
LS: Give us a little background about yourself. School, hobbies, interests, what you're doing now, plans for the future.
RB: I was born, and raised, in West Palm Beach, Florida. I graduated from high school in 2011, and moved on to college at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, where I am a business major. I’ve always been very passionate about sports, and most of my spare time is spent either watching or playing some sport. In the past year I’ve discovered a passion for helping others which has led me to my latest project. I started a nonprofit organization called jamii fund that works with patients to assist them in avoiding medical debt, and helping pay off the debts that they already have. I’ve never done work like this before, but it is, by far, the most rewarding work that I have ever done. I plan on building this organization into a lifelong venture for myself, and the others that support it.
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| jamii fund logo created by Bodwell |
RB: jamii fund is a nonprofit organization focused on putting an end to medical debt in the U.S. We’re going to do this by encouraging people to give back to others in their community. I came up with the idea after one of my favorite teachers from high school was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was the first time that I was this close to such a serious diagnosis, and it was hard for me to handle. For the first time, I considered making a substantial donation to an organization that supports breast cancer research, and I did some research of my own to see what organization to donate to. What I found was that their efforts were involved with raising awareness for the disease instead of helping the people that it impacted, and you never really knew how your money was going to be spent. I felt that people would be more willing to give if they knew exactly where their money was going, and I would have given thousands of dollars had I known that it was going directly to helping my teacher. Further research showed that there was no nonprofit currently doing this kind of service, so I started one that could, and jamii fund was born.
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| The website features jamii fund recipients, like Holly, where they can develop their own campaign to raise money for their fund. |
LS: How does jamii fund work?
RB: We are completely web-based. When people visit jamiifund.org they will be able to view personal profiles containing stories of individuals that are struggling with medical debt. These profiles will also have a button that visitors can click on to donate to that specific person. The money will be collected by jamii fund inc. and held in an account until there is enough to cover one of their expenses. At that point, we will write a check directly to the care provider to cover the costs. People can request a profile on the site by sending us a message on the “contact” section of jamiifund.org. Once we verify that they have a legitimate need, we build a profile and launch it on our website. You can think of it as crowdfunding medical debt, just like one would crowdfund an invention on Kickstarter.com. There are other companies that help people raise money in this way, but jamii fund is the only nonprofit. So when you give to someone on jamiifund.org you can rest assured that 100% of it is going towards helping put an end to medical debt. We do not take any percentage of these donations unless the beneficiary decides to give us a percentage on their own. I didn’t start this organization to make money, I started it to help people, and that’s what I’m going to do.
LS: What have you achieved so far? What are you currently working on?
RB:A lot of paperwork. There is a ton of paperwork involved with setting up a legal nonprofit, and all of it needs to be done before you can do the fun stuff like fundraising. But I have been able to build a starter website to get our name out there, tailored our social media accounts, and recruited some artists that are creating content for marketing campaigns. I’m currently still working on paperwork to obtain our 501(c)(3) certification, so that we can be super official and whatnot, and, of course, keep working on getting our name out there.
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| jamii fund's Facebook page |
RB: Big things. I would love to work with this organization for the rest of my life. Right now we are focused on helping people pay off their medical debt, but, long-term, I want to be able to build an entirely new industry. I want us to create a system where, instead of just paying off debt, we can prevent the debt from piling up in the first place. We can do this by finding quality care at lower prices, and by communicating with care providers to avoid overcharges. Working with patients from the point of diagnosis will allow us to avoid unnecessary charges and use donations more effectively.
LS: Quote to live by?
RB: “It’s not that serious.” This is more of a mantra for me because I say this to myself all of the time to keep things in proper perspective. I used to have a bad habit of blowing things out of proportion, and stressing out about things that weren’t that big of a deal, so I starting reminding myself that it’s really not that big of a deal. In most cases you can make up for a mistake after the fact, and there’s no reason to freak out about it, or obsess over ways to avoid making a mistake. You just have to remind yourself that what you’re doing, or trying to do, is really not that serious.
Be sure to check out the links below to find our more information about jamii fund and ways you can help support the cause:
The website: http://jamiifund.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamiifund
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jamiifund?ref=ts&fref=ts
