GoFundMe is a crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. The company is based in San Diego, California.
According to GoFundMe’s second annual giving report, the platform has helped campaigns raise more than $3 billion since it started in 2010. A majority of those funds amassed in the past two years.
“The first billion took five years, the second took nine months and the third took seven months,” Kelly Galvin, a spokeswoman for GoFundMe, wrote in an email on Tuesday.
The top 12 campaigns this year amassed more than $46 million total, according to the report. The ease of creating a campaign and the potential for social media attention has attracted organizers of all types.
According to the yearly report, about two million organizers set up shop on GoFundMe in 2016. They created fund-raising pages for everything from the floods in Louisiana ($11.2 million raised) and the Pulse shootings in Orlando ($9 million raised).
There were also countless low-profile efforts. Including people who needed a little extra help with rent money, or campaigns that blossomed into quickly widespread feel-good stories.
Of course, GoFundMe takes a cut. The platform takes 5 percent and adds another 2.9 percent for payment processing services. And there is some concern over whether it is siphoning funds from more established aid organizations like American Red Cross, which counted $503 million in contributions in 2015.
In August, as disaster struck Louisiana, aid agencies said they were having difficulty collecting money to support flood victims. The funds were instead going to GoFundMe, according to The Advocate, a newspaper in Baton Rouge.
“In most large disasters, there are usually more needs than any one organization can meet,” Ms. Penniman wrote in an email, “so if GoFundMe can make money and serve as a platform for donations, that provides the potential to help an even greater number of people.”
NY Times (14 Dec)
