About GoFundMe
GoFundMe is a crowdfunding platform that allows users to raise money for a wide variety of personal causes, including medical bills, special events, and even for animals and pets. According to the company’s website, they’ve helped thousands of people raise over $160 million over the past three years.
Founded in 2010 and based out of San Diego, CA, GoFundMe has been featured on CNN, Forbes, New York Times, and TIME, and has an A rating with the Better Business Bureau, based on just one complaint in three years. Overall, it appears GoFundMe has a relatively positive online reputation, though we read an overwhelming number of complaints that cited high fees and poor customer service.
How GoFundMe Works
Similar to Kickstarter and Indiegogo, GoFundMe is an online crowdfunding destination that helps you raise money for something in which you strongly believe. In fact, when compared to their competition, GoFundMe allows you to raise money for almost anything you want—including school tuition, medical bills, business ideas, travel expenses, even for animals and pets—as long as it’s not illegal and doesn’t contain inappropriate content.
The company states that getting your personal crowdfunding campaign underway takes less than a minute, and there are no required deadlines or time limits. In fact, depending on the type of campaign you choose, you can even keep all your donations, even if you don’t reach your ultimate goal.
From start to finish, the GoFundMe process entails four primary steps:
- Create your GoFundMe site.
- Share your site with friends and family, invite contacts, and post to social media sites to garner traffic.
- Collect online donations.
- Track results.
GoFundMe Pricing & Support
While it’s completely free to create a fundraising campaign, GoFundMe will deduct a 5% fee from each of your donations, and you’ll also be charged a 2.9% + $0.30 fee from WePay for each payment you request. As an example:
If you raise $10,000 during your GoFundMe campaign, the company will keep $500, and you’ll be charged an additional $300 in processing fees to complete payment (assuming you only request it once). This means that on a $10,000 campaign, you’ll end up receiving $9,200 after everything is said and done. If you’d like to find out more, a full list of pricing and fees can be viewed here.
The good news is that all online donations processed through GoFundMe are completely secure, and you can withdraw your money whenever you like (subject to the 2.9% + $0.30 fee each time, of course). When you’re ready to withdraw your money, simply provide your bank account information, and your money will be deposited within 5-7 business days. Alternately, GoFundMe can send you a paper check, though this will typically take longer.
Based on the company’s business model, there is no refund information on their website. However, GoFundMe claims that their customer support staff is very active, and will even respond to your questions within 5 minutes during business hours.
Pros:
- Has helped individuals raise more than $160 million in funding.
- Completely free to start and run a campaign.
- Campaign topics are completely open, as long as they’re not promoting anything illegal, or contain inappropriate content.
- You get to keep your donations, even if you don’t reach your monetary goal. Also, withdraw funds from your campaign whenever you wish.
- Customer support appears to be very active.
Cons:
- High fees when compared to the competition.
- Several complaints of poor customer service.
