Wondering whether you should launch a GoFundMe campaign or raise money on Facebook?
Look no further!
I’m going to get to the bottom of which is better for your charity, cause, or nonprofit.
By the end of this article, you’ll know exactly which is a good fit for you and where you should get started.
Also – if you want to grab a copy of my Crowdfunding for Personal Expenses guide, it has a ton of proven strategies for getting donations from the crowd.
I’m sure that by now you have seen some of your friends launching both GoFundMe and Facebook campaigns. Many people out there have successfully raised money. Now, it’s your turn!
GoFundMe
GoFundMe was started in 2010 as a way for individuals to raise money online for personal causes. At the time of writing, more than $5 billion has been raised on the platform from more than 50 million donors around the world.
As would be expected, you can use the website to raise money from friends, family, and strangers interested in supporting your cause. You can customize your campaign page to a degree and make use of the mobile app to manage it on the go.
Having started at the beginning of the crowdfunding industry, GoFundMe has certainly changed a lot over the years in terms of its functionality, pricing, and design. One of the major changes has been in the way that it collects fees for its services.
GoFundMe Fees
The website introduced a 0% platform fee starting in 2017 for select countries:
- US personal campaigns
- Canada
- United Kingdom
- France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain
There is also the standard payment processing fee.
Rather than asking for a fee for personal crowdfunding campaign managers in these countries, the website gives donors the option to leave a voluntary tip on top of their donation.
For non-personal crowdfunding campaigns in the USA and countries that are not included in the list above, GoFundMe charges a 5% fee.
There are no fees to sign up and create a campaign. There are no fees to withdraw money.
You can learn more about GoFundMe’s fees here.
GoFundMe Guarantee
The GoFundMe Guarantee is a program meant to help add security to online fundraising and crowdfunding as a whole. It currently supporters campaigns in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands.
Under this guarantee program, the website will refund donors up to $1,000 for campaigns that have experienced misuse of funds.
The website will also cover up to $25,000 in beneficiary funds if the organizer fails to deliver the funds raised on your behalf.
You can learn more about the program here.
In general, misuse covers when:
- A campaign organizer doesn’t deliver funds to the beneficiary
- The fundraising description is intentionally misleading
- The manager or beneficiary is charged with a crime related to campaign misrepresentations.
This does not include:
- A donation refund to your own fundraiser
- Wanting to take back a donation
- Offline donation refunds
- Personal disagreements with beneficiary or organizer
There is a formal process that you must go through to qualify for this program. You can learn more about that here.
GoFundMe Platform Reach
Being a part of GoFundMe also gives you access to the reach of the platform. If you have a good story that garners attention and funding, they may assist you with amplifying the reach of your message.
That could come in the form of including you in their newsletter, writing a blog post about your campaign, sharing it on social media, text message, or even reaching out to the larger media to get attention to the story.
Naturally, your campaign can also be shared on other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc. and gain reach that way.
Facebook Fundraising
Facebook launched fundraising functionality in 2015/2016 initially for nonprofits and then grew in 2017 as a way for its users to raise money for nonprofits, causes, and personal needs. It also now allows businesses or public figures to donate to campaigns (along with making recurring donations to nonprofits).
As a nonprofit, you can receive funds directly from Facebook or from Network for Good. As an individual, your donations will be sent to your personal checking account via Stripe.
The only stipulation is that you MUST fit into one of the primary fundraising categories on Facebook and also set a fundraising goal.
Seeing as Facebook is one of the primary ways that people discover and learn about GoFundMe campaigns, you can imagine why the network wanted to launch a fundraising service. Let’s get a bit into the details of this service and how you can use it.
Facebook Fees
Initially, Facebook was charging a fee to charities and nonprofits for its fundraising features, but it waved all its fees for personal fundraisers and charities in 2017.
There are no fees for donations made to nonprofits and charities based in the USA and select locations in Europe.
There are still payment processing fees attached to running a personal fundraiser on Facebook, and in some cases, there may be taxes depending on the country. You can learn more about these fees here.
Facebook Platform Reach
In the second quarter of 2018, Facebook had 2.23 billion monthly active users. They are a huge social media network with a large reach.
What’s even more impressive is the number of nonprofits that are starting to use Facebook’s fundraising functionality (750,000+ from 2015-2018). It’s clear that there is great potential for viral lift and spread.
In my opinion, one of the most powerful aspects of Facebook is the way in which you can see how your friends have donated to different campaigns on the platform. It makes you much more likely to do so as well.
That’s about 15% of my friends list. You can see how this number will slowly grow over time, making it more comfortable for me to actually donate to a charity on Facebook (and feel like I’m missing out).
You can also easily see the popular fundraisers across Facebook. This means that if you’re starting to get donations on the platform, then you’ll be able to trend on the entire marketplace and gain some added visibility.
It’s easy to see how with Facebook’s wealth of data that they’ll be able to recommend particular charities to you, causes that you might be interested in, and help “blow up” stories or campaigns that are already seeing a lot of attention.
Which Is Better – GoFundMe or Facebook?
This is a very difficult question to answer. On the one hand, I like that Facebook is very low cost and therefore easy to start a project. On the other, it really limits your ability to market and promote the project.
At the time of writing, I think that a GoFundMe campaign has more power, functionality, and marketing capabilities than Facebook. You can do more with the project, customize it, and also gain attention and have people link to it. I also like the GoFundMe Guarantee.
Thankfully, in certain countries, you no longer have to pay 5% for that functionality. Your donors can decide whether or not to support the platform itself.
It’s easy to see how given enough time and education, Facebook could be a very strong contender to GoFundMe. That’s my job… education.
One of the reasons I am so passionate about this industry is because the right education can make all of the difference. Knowing the proven fundraising strategies can literally supercharge your campaign.
My book, Crowdfunding Personal Expenses, goes into all of those verified fundraising techniques and strategies. You’re gonna love it!
