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thewayneOn the surface, this seems like a nice thing, right? The non-profit gets a fund-raising page for free!
Oh, there are many things wrong with this.
This is completely a ploy by GFM. They built the pages with old information, so potential donors are reading outdated and potentially inaccurate info about the non-profit group. No bueno at all. Apparently the information was scraped mainly from the IRS' publicly-available 501C3 information, and because the IRS is such a well-funded department of the government, the information is not up-to-date.
But the big deal?
GFM takes a slice of every transaction. Every single donation processed through Go Fund Me has a transaction fee of 2.2%. And a suggested tip to GFM of 14.5%, just because of how nice they were to set up these pages for people for free. Without asking or telling them. Oh, and there's an additional $0.30 taken.
So if I give $20 to a non-profit through GFM, there's going to be a $0.22 transaction fee, the automatic $0.30 automatic whateveritis, and let's say I click the tip for GFM because I think that's sweet. That tip is $2.90 at 14.5%. That's $3.42 that I just gave GFM, and $16.58 that went to the charity. The charity got 82.9% of what I wanted to give them. And it might be reduced slightly further from credit card or other processing fees.
Oh, and when a Bay-area TV news team went investigating this, they found the tip slider was set to 16.5% for some non-profits.
Whereas if I went and gave that $20 to them directly, they'd get $20, less any possible credit card or other processing fees, though it's possible that those fees are waived for registered 501(c)3s. Guaranteed higher percentage as you're not going to have people tipping that 14-16.5% to GFM!
THIS is the big problem. GoFundMe is skimming 2.2-17%+ of the donations to these non-profits, converting them straight into corporate profits! And their effort in this? Bot scraping a couple of web sites then programmatically setting up web pages, plus minimal work possibly tweaking these pages, plus hosting.
I'm really in the wrong line of work. Alas, I have morals.
Really, it's very much like Humble Bundle book purchases. Every purchase is split between HB, the publisher, and a charity. That's pretty cool. But the amount that goes to the charity isn't that big. You can adjust the sliders manually if you pay attention, so I divvy it up into as close of thirds as I can.
https://abc7news.com/post/gofundme-created-14-million-donation-pages-nonprofits-bay-area-organizations-had-no-clue/18013410/
https://slashdot.org/story/25/11/02/1728231/gofundme-created-14-million-donation-pages-for-nonprofits-without-their-consent
Oh, there are many things wrong with this.
This is completely a ploy by GFM. They built the pages with old information, so potential donors are reading outdated and potentially inaccurate info about the non-profit group. No bueno at all. Apparently the information was scraped mainly from the IRS' publicly-available 501C3 information, and because the IRS is such a well-funded department of the government, the information is not up-to-date.
But the big deal?
GFM takes a slice of every transaction. Every single donation processed through Go Fund Me has a transaction fee of 2.2%. And a suggested tip to GFM of 14.5%, just because of how nice they were to set up these pages for people for free. Without asking or telling them. Oh, and there's an additional $0.30 taken.
So if I give $20 to a non-profit through GFM, there's going to be a $0.22 transaction fee, the automatic $0.30 automatic whateveritis, and let's say I click the tip for GFM because I think that's sweet. That tip is $2.90 at 14.5%. That's $3.42 that I just gave GFM, and $16.58 that went to the charity. The charity got 82.9% of what I wanted to give them. And it might be reduced slightly further from credit card or other processing fees.
Oh, and when a Bay-area TV news team went investigating this, they found the tip slider was set to 16.5% for some non-profits.
Whereas if I went and gave that $20 to them directly, they'd get $20, less any possible credit card or other processing fees, though it's possible that those fees are waived for registered 501(c)3s. Guaranteed higher percentage as you're not going to have people tipping that 14-16.5% to GFM!
THIS is the big problem. GoFundMe is skimming 2.2-17%+ of the donations to these non-profits, converting them straight into corporate profits! And their effort in this? Bot scraping a couple of web sites then programmatically setting up web pages, plus minimal work possibly tweaking these pages, plus hosting.
I'm really in the wrong line of work. Alas, I have morals.
Really, it's very much like Humble Bundle book purchases. Every purchase is split between HB, the publisher, and a charity. That's pretty cool. But the amount that goes to the charity isn't that big. You can adjust the sliders manually if you pay attention, so I divvy it up into as close of thirds as I can.
https://abc7news.com/post/gofundme-created-14-million-donation-pages-nonprofits-bay-area-organizations-had-no-clue/18013410/
https://slashdot.org/story/25/11/02/1728231/gofundme-created-14-million-donation-pages-for-nonprofits-without-their-consent
no subject
Date: 2025-11-04 03:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-04 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-04 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-04 04:39 pm (UTC)I'm off to write a check (remember those?) to the Ness of Brogar archeology dig. https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/ I've been following this dig with great interest since they started. The current request is for money to replace a shed that they have been sieving dirt from the dig in. Apparently, in the rainy, cold Orkney climate, they would like: a roof that doesn't leak, a way to heat the building, and room enough for more than one or two very friendly people to work.
no subject
Date: 2025-11-04 06:37 pm (UTC)Definitely sounds like a worthy endeavor. And yeah, that shed sounds a bit cozy and in need of replacement/renovation. What I don't like about GFM is really what people mainly use it for: my insurance won't pay for my medical treatment, I'm almost broke and bankrupt, help me! I can understand plights, I just hate that the American system is so broke that such a system exists.
no subject
Date: 2025-11-04 06:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-04 08:00 pm (UTC)FYI, I give to a number of 501(c)s through their websites, and they do charge credit card processing fees. For the last several years, they offer you an option to cover them. I usually do and always find it fascinating that the percentages are similar but never the same. It seems like the kind of thing where the credit card companies would have a standard but apparently not.
no subject
Date: 2025-11-08 01:24 am (UTC)There's been an update to the story:
GoFundMe takes responsibility for creating pages without nonprofits' consent: 'We're very sorry'
Paypal's Giving Fund does something similar as GFM did, in having pages for non-profits who haven't opted in. There is fine print like, in case we can't deliver your donation to the organization, we'll give you a choice of similar charities to redirect it to. That happened to me once, so I'm more careful now when using them. But from what I understand, PPGF covers the transaction fees (rather than deducting them from your donation amount), which makes them seem a very good option, if I can be sure the $ will end up with the charity I select.
no subject
Date: 2025-11-08 02:52 am (UTC)PPGF definitely sounds like the better option between the two. It's good to hear that GFM has apologized, it looks like GFM is doing a decent job but it appears that they're still requiring people to provide banking credentials to delist.
no subject
Date: 2025-11-14 05:40 pm (UTC)And yes, even if they apologize, the fact that they set things up in this way without asking for consent, and without providing, essentially, a one-click "remove" option, says that they're not actually sorry, and they probably consider donations made to the organizations as incidental, or something to use as cover, rather than a genuine desire to offer a new funnel for charities to get donations.