Initiative ... Fund Raising
GoFundMe

GoFundMe is a crowdfunding website open to a wide variety of projects

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoFundMe

GoFundMe is a crowd funding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses.[2][3] The company is based in San Diego, California, and is one of the largest crowdfunding websites currently operating.[4][5]

History[edit]

The company was founded in May, 2010 by Brad Damphousse and Andrew Ballester. Both had previously founded Paygr which is a website dedicated to allowing members to sell their services to the public.[6] Damphousse and Ballester originally created the website under the name 'CreateAFund' in 2008 but later changed the name to GoFundMe after making numerous upgrades to the features of the website.[7][8]

Business model[edit]

GoFundMe allows users to create their own website to describe what they are raising money for.[2] During this process, members can enter the fundraising cause, the amount they hope to raise, and even upload photos or video.[9] Once the website is created, GoFundMe allows users to share their project with people through integrated social network links (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and email. People can then donate to a user’s cause through the website and track the progress of their funding. Those who donate can also leave comments on the website in support of the project. GoFundMe generates revenue by automatically deducting a 5% transaction fee from each donation a user receives. If the user receives no donations, then no charge is made.[10]

GoFundMe is unique to crowdfunding in that they are not an incentive-based crowdfunding website. Although they do allow projects that are meant to fund other projects for musicians, inventors, etc., the business model is set up to allow for donations to personal causes and life events such as medical bills.[11][12][13] GoFundMe also has a special section dedicated solely to users who are trying to raise money to cover their tuition costs.[2] One of the most notable tuition projects involved helping a user raise $25,000 to pay out of state tuition to a PhD program after that user was selected among 125 applicants into that program.[14]

Notable projects[edit]

Project Name Amount Raised Notes Dates

• Tallest American Man Needs Shoes $46,180 Tallest man in America, Igor Vovkovinskiy, raised $16,000 for custom made shoes.[15]
• Send Ocean Skys on Vacation $30,160 Cancer-stricken patient with only 6 months left to live requests funding to go on vacation. User’s goal was to raise $2,500 but ended up raising over $30,000. User was an avid user of Reddit and the $30,000 raised for this project was donated primarily from other Reddit users[16]
• 3 Little Girls Need Your Help $73,047 Close to $75,000 was raised to help the parents of 3 girls diagnosed with MPS pay for medical expenses.[17]
• Wheelchair Basketball to Briarcliff $27,048 Child in wheelchair attempting to save $1,000 for the sponsorship of a wheelchair basketball team has $250 taken from him during a robbery. Goal was to raise $1,000 but project raised a total of $27,048 from donations.[18][19][20]
• Support All Kids Billboard Project $16,145 In reaction to billboards put up by the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (“CHA”) in the Atlanta Georgia area, Ragen Chastain raised $16,000 to put up billboards to the contrary. The CHA billboards were anti-obesity billboards featuring children with comments such as “fat kids grow up to be fat adults.” The money raised was used to put up billboards with comments such as “shame is bad for your health; we stand for healthy children of all sizes.”[21][22]
• Canadian Comedy Legend Mike MacDonald Get Healthy $36,491 Comedian Mike MacDonald raises over $35,000 to help with medical bills associated with his diagnosis with Hepatitis C.[23]