• Target location: Global
• Platform fee: 5% of donations and payment processors take 2.9%, along with 30 cents per donation.
• Model: Donation-based
• Operating from: Redwood, California
• Ideal For: Service-based causes, Startups, Artists, Designers, etc.

What is GoFundMe?

GoFundMe is a personal crowdfunding site designed to help ease the financial stresses of life for families and businesses. While Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are ideal places to birth an idea, GoFundMe is where you go to get back on your feet. Families use it to raise funds for school trips or medical expenses. Small businesses use it to help cover the cost of robbery or fire. Some people use it to fund their honeymoon. And, yes, others use it to raise money for a business idea. 

The site was launched in 2010, and to date, it’s raised over $5 billion from 50 million donors spread across 2 million individual campaigns. GoFundMe claims 10,000 people start new campaigns on the site daily. Those are staggering numbers that speak to the GoFundMe’s popularity and ease of use.

How does GoFundMe work?

Unlike Kickstarter, GoFundMe is not an all-or-nothing crowdfunding site, and that’s part of what makes it so appealing. Whereas on Kickstarter and some other crowdfunding sites you have to reach your goal in order to unlock the funding, on GoFundMe, you’ll receive whatever money is donated regardless. It’s nice to know that even if a campaign falls short, the person running it will still get some help. That knowledge is doubly true when supporting medical campaigns, which have become a major crutch across the U.S.

A GoFundMe campaign is relatively easy to create. After you sign up for an account either using your Facebook account or an email address, you’ll set a goal and then start filling in details about the campaign—why it’s needed, what category it falls into, how you’ll use the money—and add whatever multimedia you have to support your cause and help improve engagement on the page.

From there, it’s only a matter of promoting your cause and following up with your backers. When your campaign has concluded, you can request to receive your funds from GoFundMe via bank order or check.

GoFundMe fees!

When it comes to personal campaigns, GoFundMe has the lowest fees in the industry. The platform doesn’t take anything from individual campaigns, instead charging a 2.9 percent payment processing fee and $0.30 per donation. Charitable campaigns are a different matter. Registered non-profits that use the GoFundMe platform are charged 7.9 percent plus $0.30 fee for each donation. The tradeoff is donors get a receipt that makes their contribution tax deductible.

People Who Are Willing To Help By Sending Donations!

Donors can choose the campaign they want to support and can donate whatever amount they wish to. GoFundMe has a specially assigned Trust & Safety Team which ensures that all campaigns and donations are protected under the GoFundMe Guarantee.

All they have to do is to provide their details to the site by filling their information and are eligible to donate after successful completion of the form.

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For more information: https://www.gofundme.com/