The online fundraising platform GoFundMe is under scrutiny from local nonprofit organizations after automatically creating donation pages without consent or prior notice for roughly 1.4 million nonprofits.
The initiative, launched using data from Candid and PayPal Giving Fund, generated “official-looking” fundraising pages for charities and organizations, many of which were unaware of their existence.
“Its caused a lot of confusion,” said Matt Martin, Director of Programs Nonprofit Association of the Midlands. “Organizations didn’t know about this, many did not have GoFundMe pages or accounts. There are fees that GoFundMe collects that the organizations didn’t agree to. Oftentimes, the information was incorrect. It was an unauthorized use of the logos. Just a whole wealth of problems were created that no one asked for.”
According to advocacy groups, the pages also charge significant platform fees — including a default 16.5% tip — and delay donations for up to 45 days if processed through PayPal Giving Fund.
Following pushback from nonprofits and industry advocates, including the National Council of Nonprofits (NCN), GoFundMe has apologized publicly and outlined steps to correct the issue. In a recent statement, GoFundMe said it will:
- Remove all unclaimed nonprofit pages created without approval.
- Turn off automatic SEO optimization that made the pages appear prominently in search results.
- Deindex the pages from online search engines.
- Require nonprofits to opt in before any new fundraising page is created in their name.
The National Council of Nonprofits welcomed the changes but stressed that organizations must maintain full control over how they appear on third-party fundraising platforms.
GoFundMe said further guidance will be released soon for organizations that wish to remove, update, or voluntarily set up a verified fundraising page. Nonprofits are encouraged to check whether an unauthorized page exists for their organization and to contact GoFundMe support if necessary.