GoFundMe
personal and charity crowdfunding platform
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Company | GoFundMe |
| URL | gofundme.com |
| Pricing | varies— Charity fundraisers: 2.2% + $0.30/donation; personal fundraisers: 2.9% + $0.30/donation
(plus an optional donor tip in both cases) |
| License | closed |
| Hosting | cloud |
The largest mainstream crowdfunding platform, offering the widest donor reach of any option in this category. A "personal" fundraiser can be started with no nonprofit registration at all -- funds go to a personal or associated bank account -- while the lower-fee "Charity" fundraiser type (direct-to-org transfer) requires the org to first enroll and be verified.
Usage Notes
Registration: no 501(c)(3) or formal registration required to raise money on the org's behalf -- start a personal fundraiser, select "Myself or Someone else," and route funds to a personal or associated bank account. The lower-fee "Charity" type isn't available until we're a verified nonprofit.
Deplatforming risk (high, and specifically relevant to our alignment): documented 2025 pattern of GoFundMe freezing or refunding Palestinian/Gaza-related fundraisers even after they've raised significant funds -- e.g. The Sameer Project had $250K+ refunded after raising over $1M, despite GoFundMe already collecting roughly $44K in fees. Civil society groups have called this discriminatory, and GoFundMe has declined to disclose comparative takedown rates against Israel- or Ukraine-related campaigns. GoFundMe has also removed fundraisers across the political spectrum (legal-defense funds, Jan 6-adjacent travel funding, a bar owner's post-Floyd-protest remarks) citing vague terms-of-service violations with a weak appeals process. This is a live risk for us, not a hypothetical one.