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GoFundMe is a personal fundraising platform that has raised over $1 billion in funding for a wide variety of projects.
A few of the most common categories on the platform include medical, volunteer, emergencies, education, memorials and animals.
Since the company launched in 2010, GoFundMe has become a popular option for many types of online fundraising campaigns. There’s a good chance that you may have heard about GoFundMe in the media, from success stories to fraud cases.
If you’re thinking about launching a GoFundMe campaign but you’re wondering if the platform will live up to your expectations, here are some answers for you.
How it Works
It only takes a minute to sign up for GoFundMe and start personalizing your campaign page. They make it easy for friends and family to share your project with their social networks (via Facebook, Twitter and email) all from the comfort of your fundraising page.
Unlike some crowdfunding platforms, there are no deadlines or goal requirements. GoFundMe users get to keep all of the donations that they receive.
GoFundMe is able to accept donations from around the world, but to start a project you must currently be in the US, UK, Canada or Australia (and some EU countries that use the Euro as their official currency).
It is free to launch a project on GoFundMe, but a percentage is taken from each donation. These fees range from approximately 7.9% in the US and Canada to 9.25% for charities.
Success Stories
The GoFundMe website features a long list of success stories, including the Jake Brewer memorial education fund, which raised over $424K from more than 5,000 people in just 15 days.
Another campaign, Save the Abandoned Chimps, raised more than $218K from 4,000 people over a period of four months.
Several users have left positive reviews of the platform on other websites. One poster shared:
“We have been pleased with the results of our campaign on GoFundMe, both in terms of dollars raised and number of donors. The page is very attractive, allowing you to incorporate video, copy, photos, and graphics, giving donors the chance to comment, and easily allowing visitors to share the page through various social media channels. It also takes a minimum away for overhead, resulting in more funds for our cause.” – War on Alzheimers.
We know that GoFundMe is a popular platform that helps charities and individuals get funding for causes or unexpected life events – but not all of GoFundMe’s reviews are positive ones.
5-Minute Email Support
Out of the long list of benefits GoFundMe has on their website, what stood out to me was GoFundMe’s 5-Minute Email Support policy. This should be a good way for customers to get answers to questions and resolve issues quickly; instead, customers see it as a hopeless battle.
“Can I give them a zero rating? Right at the apex of our campaign they shut down our account without an explanation. It’s been two days and email after email goes ignored. I don’t know where the money that was donated to me is, or whether it will be returned to me or my donors. Their customer service only sends you generic emails and NEVER answer your questions.” – Source.
It seems like GoFundMe is using email communication to keep customers at an arm’s length and avoid accountability for problems with their service. Many GoFundMe projects may go smoothly, but every once in a while slip-ups tend to happen – and those slip ups should be handled more efficiently. Another user warned:
“Well, somehow, my account was supposedly set up for Canada, I absolutely did not make that mistake. Secondly, I cannot get the funding, they are trying to send it back to the donors, but I do not trust that that will happen at all and I do not know what to tell the donors or how to get the money. I have corresponding emails from a million “happiness reps” and nothing has been resolved. This is by far the worst experience ever.” – Source.
This lack of responsiveness makes people feel like GoFundMe is profiting from people’s hardships, so the least they could do is try to resolve problems more professionally.
More trouble than it’s worth?
Besides the communication issues mentioned above, other common complaints from GoFundMe users include:
- Payment processing issues such as not receiving the funds raised or having the funds removed from the user’s account days later.
“A GoFundMe was set up for our grandson for college after the death of our daughter. A donation was made and subsequently transferred into our account after the required “waiting period”. 28 days later they removed the funds without any warning. We have tried no less than 15 times to contact the company even with the organizers permission and NO explanation.” – Source.
- Privacy concerns and users feeling that they shouldn’t have to give their Facebook information (not required, but needed to appear in GoFundMe’s Public Search Directory).
“I just started using the site for a special cause. In my experience, till now, it has been pretty easy to use. However I noticed that We Pay asks for a SSN and THAT I did not like. Why do they need it? I’d rather not disclose this info.” – Source.
- The possibility of fraud and unverified facts running rampant on the platform.
Conclusion
Even though I still want to like GoFundMe, it’s hard after seeing so many negative comments from users who had a terrible experience with the platform. Of course, every platform has users with both positive and negative experiences – negative ones might even come from the fact that inexperienced users have high expectations. They might not fully understand how crowdfunding works or the risk that is involved.
If you were thinking about launching a GoFundMe campaign, my suggestion is to take a look at some of the other personal fundraising platforms out there before deciding (maybe choose one that does better due diligence on projects and whose staff can be reached by telephone).
Share your GoFundMe experience below!
