Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, GoFundMe is one of the world’s most successful crowdfunding platforms in the world. To date, GoFundMe has raised more than $10 billion from 130 million donations around the world.
GoFundMe allows individuals and teams to raise money for all kinds of social causes.
Campaigns can be launched in a variety of categories, ranging from emergencies to medical care. This website makes it an easy way to start your campaign by providing some very useful tools, such as templates, advice on what to include in your campaign page and how best to promote it online, and much more.
Both individuals and groups are eligible to open campaigns on the platform. You may be wondering, “How does GoFundMe make money?” Well, in exchange for the ability to raise money on the GoFundMe platform, a fee is paid. This fee is used to cover the cost of servers or staff, as well as the cost of the service in general.
What are the GoFundMe fees?
GoFundMe charges users a platform fee and transaction fees. The company generates money from the donations it receives, not only directly through the platform, but also through companies that make contributions to their cause.
What is GoFundMe’s mission?
GoFundMe’s mission is to inspire hope and change lives through giving. They want a world where there is enough support for everyone who needs it, and where the number of people willing to help keeps growing. Whether it’s a medical emergency, a natural disaster, or someone just wants to support a cause they care about, they make it as easy as possible for them!
How does GoFundMe make money?
GoFundMe charges a platform fee that they collect every time someone donates to a campaign. They also collect transaction fees when money goes through their website.
But they do not not charge their customers a platform fee and instead use a tipping model that allows donors to tip the company. This helps the company maintain operations and provide an effective and safe experience for all users around the world.
If you want a detailed explanation of GoFundMe’s transaction fees, tipping model, and how GoFundMe makes money, read below.
There are two different types of fees:
The platform fee
The GoFundMe platform is available to fundraisers in most major countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, and many others. Organizers do not have to pay any platform fees with GoFundMe.
Although GoFundMe does not charge platform fees to organizers in the United States, Canada, Australia, the U.K., and other countries, all fundraisers incur transaction fees (including debit and credit fees) that are deducted from each donation. Organizers will receive all funds raised minus any transaction fees. This money is then passed on to the beneficiaries in addition to what they have collected themselves!
The transaction or payment processing fee
Every donation goes through a process of verification and secure processing by a third party payment processor. This is because every online transfer must be properly secured and processed before it can be sent.
In reality, the transaction fees associated with each donation are an unavoidable part of online giving.
Donors give their hard-earned money to the organizer to use as they see fit and receive a tax receipt for the excess amount, saving them some money as well.
What is the GoFundMe tipping model?
GoFundMe believes that people who visit their site recognize and appreciate the value of what we offer. That’s why donors in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, and most major European countries have the option to give them a voluntary tip. Many think that the answer to how GoFundMe makes money lies in these tips. However, donors’ tips are independent of their donations, as they have no impact on how much money beneficiaries receive. The tips help GoFundMe operate more effectively by supporting staff salaries and providing an effective system for all users worldwide. They also help improve security for users of our platform, which has safety at its core.
This can be explained with an example:
When you donate to a campaign, the fees are paid by your organization, not by you. For example, if an individual donates $100 to a cause that is based in New York City but lives in California, they will be charged anywhere between $90 and $98 depending on where they live.
Fee structure of the GoFundMe platform
GoFundMe charges different fees depending on the country you are located in. You can find them on the pricing page here.
Both fees vary from country to country. In most countries, the fees for the GoFundMe platform include a 2.9 per cent transaction fee and a $0.30 fixed fee. The exception is Belgium, where 5% of fees are included along with a 2.45% transaction fee per user and no additional platform fees.
People who use the website,GoFundMe Charity website, have to pay different fees depending on their subscription plan.
There are two subscription plans available:
Free
A processing fee of 1.9% plus 30 cents that is charged for each donation. This guarantees the donation organization receives 97.5% of the total amount donated.
Flex
Every donation to the organization garners a 2.2% processing fee of the total amount charged for each donation to the charity, so it receives at least 94.5% of its donations. However, some people choose to pay this fee by paying it themselves or support this decision with additional funds. In this way, those in need receive 100% of the donation.
I hope the above details help you figure out how GoFundMe makes money. To learn more about this and other pricing details, you can visit the website’s pricing page here.
Direct Donations to the platform
GoFundMe is able to keep a relatively small portion of its revenue from donations that come directly from users of the platform. Donors have the option of either donating to a campaign on the site or donating directly to the platform.
How does GoFundMe work?
Social causes
GoFundMe is a platform that helps people crowdfund for various causes. These include campaigns for medical treatments (paying for cancer treatments, surgeries), relief campaigns (in case of natural disasters), education (funding school-related expenses), women’s empowerment (funding sanitary napkins, startups), and more.
Create a fundraising campaign
Users can quickly create a fundraising campaign by setting the right preferences, including images and videos. Reach a goal of $30,000 to help women in an underprivileged area start their own brand of handmade items. The goal can be to support an individual, a group, a society, or a community.
Share and invite people to donate to the campaign
Once the campaign has been created, GoFundMe users can share it with their friends and family via email, text message, or social media platforms. As it is available either on the website or in the app of Apple’s iOS and Google Play Store app.
For larger organizations, GoFundMe offers a tool called GFC- GoFundMe Charity that allows them to track the progress of their campaigns, collect recurring donations, create branded campaigns, and sell tickets to events.
Want to learn more about the GoFundMe Charity (GFC)?
Online fundraising platform GoFundMe offers the GoFundMe Charity tool, a feature-rich online platform that helps businesses and nonprofits raise money by connecting with donors. Organizations get full access to donor and fundraising data in one place. Organizers can create branded fundraising buttons with this powerful tool!
You can integrate fundraising campaigns with platforms like WordPress, Salesforce, and Mailchimp. These are just a few of the options available to you to raise money for your individual projects or causes.
GoFundMe Funding, Valuation & Revenue
GoFundMe is a fundraising website that has only been successful once through a venture capital investment. In its first round of funding, it raised more than $50 million, which was surprisingly high for the size of the company at the time.
The amount was not disclosed, but the company garnered a valuation of about $650 million. It is likely that this valuation has increased exponentially since then.
The company has most likely been profitable for 10 years. GoFundMe has only raised one round of funding in its entire 10 years of existence and is unlikely to raise any more money anytime soon.
Origin
Founded by Brad Damphousse and Andrew Ballester, the service allows people to raise money for events like graduations, celebrations, or other personal causes. Whether you need a boost in medical funds due to an illness or an injury resulting from an accident, it’s also possible through FundRazr.
Early on, Damphousse and Ballester created a crowdfunding website called CreateAFund. It allowed the social media users to raise money for causes they believed in. Fundraising as we know it today was just starting to catch on back then.
GoFundMe has been around since 2008, and in 2017, it became the largest online crowdfunding platform. It has raised over $3 billion through its activities.
Benefits of using the GoFundMe platform
Global leader
GoFundMe is trusted worldwide because of its simple and reliable fundraising platform. Since 2010, GoFundMe has been used by over 4 million people in all 50 states and more than 70 countries to raise money. The user-friendly interface allows anyone, regardless of their knowledge or experience with crowdfunding platforms, to create a campaign from start to finish without ever having to learn how it works.
Easy setup
You can personalize and share your GoFundMe in just a few minutes. You also have the option to edit it later, so you do not have to worry about making mistakes or forgetting important information when you create your campaign. Once you have set up an account on GoFundMe, make sure all family members know their login information too!
Safe
The Trust & Safety team works around the clock to protect you from fraud. The team is made up of professionals with experience in law enforcement, security, and technology who are dedicated to protecting our members from identity theft, credit card fraud, or other scams that could harm their financial well-being.
Pricing
The company has maintained transparency about how GoFundMe make money. The fees charged are reasonable.
Mobile App
The GoFundMe app makes it easy to start and manage your fundraising on the go. The platform is user-friendly and allows fundraisers of all experience levels to create a campaign with just a few taps. You can also share your story with friends or family members who are interested in donating, or you can even start an appeal for help from celebrities like Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network!
Social Reach
Social media has become a powerful tool for many people, especially those in need who are looking for help or funding. There is no doubt that this platform can be used as an effective marketing tool to attract the attention of potential donors, sponsors, and volunteers.
Expert advice
They offer top-notch customer support, specialists answer your questions, day and night. Support is available 24/7 via phone and email, so you never have to worry that we will not be there for you when you need it most.
Key Takeaways:
What is it?
Originally, the service allowed social media users to raise money for causes they cared about. Today, GoFundMe is a for-profit company that allows people and organizations around the world in need of financial support to raise money through this crowdfunding platform to not only live, but also achieve their life goals.
How does GoFundMe make money?
The platform is very popular and so the question “How does GoFundMe make money?” also arises. GoFundMe is a platform that makes money from every donation. It charges a 5% platform fee, but recently eliminated it in the countries of Australia, Canada, and the United States.
However, each campaign will incur transaction fees ranging from 2.9% to 5%, depending on the location.
What is a GoFundMe charity?
GoFundMe also offers a special service for businesses called GoFundMe Charity. The company helps them create targeted and branded messages that can be integrated into popular platforms like WordPress and Salesforce.
