If you’re looking to get funding online for personal costs, non-profit causes, or a business, you’ve probably already heard of GoFundMe.
It’s an online platform that uses traditional crowdfunding models to help people do just that. It currently has over 100 million members, and in 2022 alone, it helped raise $25 billion for a variety of causes worldwide.
In 2023, GoFundMe is still the go-to crowdfunding site for passionate people who want to raise money with crowdfunding for causes that matter.
But does it really work? Can GoFundMe actually help you raise enough money to make a difference?
Yes! Absolutely!
GoFundMe has been around since 2013, and today, it continues to make waves in the fundraising community, hosting campaigns that have changed lives all over the world.
Any time you’re planning a fundraising campaign, it helps to examine GoFundMe success examples to get ideas for GoFundMe techniques that work.
And to prove it, let’s take a look at 7 inspiring GoFundMe success stories in 2022 that showcase the power of community.
By the way, if you really want some in-depth insight into what goes into real GoFundMe success, I’ve put together a new FREE course that’s packed with GoFundMe tips, resources, strategies, and killer marketing methods.
You should check it out if you want to get more GoFundMe donations and fast-track the entire process. Trust me, doing a little extra research is always worth it!
1. Anne’s History-Making Violin Commission
In February 2022, professional fiddle player Anne Harris set up a GoFundMe page that she hoped would inspire Black women, especially in the music industry.
She wanted to commission an instrument from Amanda Ewing, the first and only African American woman violin maker in the US, and she hoped GoFundMe would help her raise the money she’d need to pay Amanda for her work.
Anne used her page to tell the world how much a collaboration with Ewing would mean.
“Never before in the US, possibly the world, has a violin commission been made between two Black women,” she wrote amidst a collage of pictures of herself and Ewing at work.
She made it clear that this wasn’t just about having a violin made – it was about making history through a relationship between two talented Black women.
And her story really did move people. By May, she had achieved fundraising success; by the end of 2022, she had more than doubled her original goal.
2. Stand With Ukraine
After it was launched on March 3rd, 2022, Stand With Ukraine became one of the biggest GoFundMe campaigns ever, raising a whopping $37 million to support the people of Ukraine.
Admittedly, it had a bit of an advantage considering it was fronted by celebrity couple Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, but they took their campaign seriously and showed how much of a difference community crowdfunding could make.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kunis and Kutcher set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for relief efforts organized by Flexport and Airbnb.
Their page reflected how personal the Ukraine relief mission was to them, as Kunis shared her own story of emigration from Ukraine.
They also posted several video updates in which they emphasized the urgency of the project and explained how the money would be used.
The personal touches they added to their campaign paid off, and as of now, they’ve exceeded their original goal by more than $7 million!
3. Asian-themed book for Nashville schools
Another crowdfunding success story of 2022 comes from the Greater Nashville Chinese Association, which took to GoFundMe in May to raise money for an Asian-themed book drive.
The project was driven by Joseph Gutierrez, a Filipino-American man who was struck by the lack of resources for the Asian and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in his hometown of Nashville, TN.
After the pandemic brought a new wave of anti-AAPI racism, he felt it was more important than ever to take action on behalf of the AAPI community.
He partnered with the Greater Nashville Chinese Association and the Nashville Chinese School to set up a GoFundMe campaign for a book drive that would put Asian-themed books in local schools and bring much-needed representation to the community.
The campaign was marketed on social media and in the press, and it took only two months for them to reach their goal and earn enough to purchase 600 books for schools in the Nashville area!
4. Believe in Newark HBCU Scholarship Bike Ride
The Believe in Newark HBCU Scholarship Bike Ride campaign, led by Hassan Abdus-Sabur, achieved tremendous GoFundMe success after it was launched in June 2022.
Hassan was forced to leave Howard University in 1993 before he was able to graduate due to a lack of funds.
Years later, in 2020, he learned that the niece of one of his former classmates was also accepted to Howard, but like him, she was struggling to cover tuition.
Combining his love of biking with his desire to help his classmate’s niece and other students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, he organized a scholarship bike ride, which raised money through GoFundMe.
Hassan’s fundraiser allowed him to cover the cost of tuition for his classmate’s niece and many other Black students, and he repeated his campaign three years in a row, surpassing his goal each time!
5. Hurricane Ian Relief – Our Family Lost It All
After Hurricane Ian devastated Naples, FL in September 2022, Cassandra and Keanu Clark decided to use crowdfunding to raise money for members of their family who had lost everything in the flooding.
They set up a GoFundMe page with an initial goal of $2,500, enough to cover their family’s basic costs.
The money would go directly to Cassandra and Keanu’s nephew, Xavier. Xavier’s grandmother Karen, who was disabled and suffering from hypothermia after being stuck in the flood, became the face of the campaign.
Their page helped show the world how much the people of Naples had suffered as a result of Hurricane Ian.
Cassandra and Keanu were amazed at the compassion of the GoFundMe community, and by the end of 2022, their campaign had raised over $28,000, more than enough to help their family!
6. Lunch Bag initiative – meals for the homeless
High school students and lifelong friends Ayaan Vaswani and Josh Isaac grew up watching their mothers prepare food for homeless people in their community.
In 2022, they decided to follow in their mothers’ footsteps and take direct action to help the homeless population in San Jose, CA.
They wanted to start by making sandwiches for local homeless people, but they would need money to cover the cost of supplies, so they set up a GoFundMe page for their Lunch Bag initiative, a program that made sandwiches for homeless people and contributed to local charities and shelters.
Their decision to raise money with crowdfunding quickly proved successful. By 2023, they had exceeded their goal and raised enough money to help thousands of people!
7. 100 percent going to the Club Q victims
The deadly November 20th shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs, left many people stunned.
Faith Haugh, co-owner of the Good Judy Garage in Sheridan, CO, wanted to know what she could do to help, but soon discovered there weren’t any existing charities to benefit victims, so she started her own.
Haugh organized a GoFundMe page to raise money on behalf of those who had been injured and those whose family members had lost their lives in the shooting.
Haugh set her initial goal at $5 thousand and began to promote the campaign through social media, especially through the Good Judy Garage page on Instagram.
In only two hours, GoFundMe donors had helped her raise five times her original goal!
Impressed by the community’s generosity, she increased her goal to $1 million, making it clear all of the money would go to victims and their families. At the time of writing, the campaign is well on its way to seven figures.
The charity fundraising success stories on this list show the power that community crowdfunding efforts can have.
The beauty of the platform is that it allows such a broad variety of projects to get the exposure they need to meet their goals.
You can get funding online for almost any cause that’s important to you as long as you’re using GoFundMe techniques that work.
If you’re curious as to what some of those techniques are, your best bet is to check out my complete guide to GoFundMe, Crowdfunding Personal Expenses: Raise Money on GoFundMe Etc., available in paperback and on Audible (FREE with 30-day trial).
It will help you navigate the world of crowdfunding for charity and personal expenses and get you on the right track toward your own GoFundMe success story!
Good luck with your campaigns!
