Just so you know the backstory:

Ladies and gents, our friend John was the victim of a violent crime last night. He was shot in the chest in Louisville Nov. 3rd by two men while picking up dinner for his wife. Our heart goes out to John and his whole family. John is a terrific guy and an invaluable member of our team as our lead Rails developer. We want to support him during his recovery and hope you can help too.

Wow that's tragic. I'm on the startup budget but just donated $20. I hope others can open their hearts as well.

BTW Pledgie ia great idea for a site, pity there's no voting/sort by donation amount to weed out the good causes from the bad ones.

Say this good one http://pledgie.com/campaigns/159 from this dubious one http://pledgie.com/campaigns/249

No health insurance, I take it?

Even with good health insurance they still might have to cover 20%, which I'm sure is still a lot with something like this.

More details on the page -- regarding what the money is needed for -- would probably help increase the amount of donations. Also a link to the local news story would be good.