Gofundme Created 1.4m Donation Pages for Nonprofits; Organizations Had No Clue

Posted2 months agoActive2 months ago

debo_

64 points

10 comments

abc7news.comOtherstory

heatednegative

Debate

80/100

NonprofitDonationCrowdfundingEthics

Key topics

Nonprofit

Donation

Crowdfunding

Ethics

GoFundMe created 1.4M donation pages for nonprofits without their knowledge or consent, sparking controversy over the handling of donations and the company's motives.

Snapshot generated from the HN discussion

Discussion Activity

Light discussion

First comment

Peak period

2-4h

Avg / period

1.7

Key moments

01Story posted
Oct 20, 2025 at 9:17 AM EDT
2 months ago
Step 01
02First comment
Oct 20, 2025 at 10:54 AM EDT
2h after posting
Step 02
03Peak activity
3 comments in 2-4h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03
04Latest activity
Oct 21, 2025 at 7:39 AM EDT
2 months ago
Step 04

Generating AI Summary...

Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns

Discussion (10 comments)

Showing 10 comments

akudha

2 months ago

2 replies

Can’t the nonprofits sue gofundme?

snowwrestler

2 months ago

1 reply

Sure but that is expensive and will likely just get a page taken down. Most nonprofits are barely surviving and not able to spend on lawyers just to make a point.

But press coverage and public outrage is free, and many nonprofits are good at one or both.

I looked up charities I support and it looks like GoFundMe is pulling in the logos of some orgs. Assuming those are trademarked, that would be a pretty simple takedown letter to send.

JumpCrisscross

2 months ago

> will likely just get a page taken down

You’d potentially recover misdirected funding and catch the attention of an attorney general.

You’d also likely get access to a list of duped donors who would have standing to write fraud complaint letters to their respective state attorneys general.

BizarroLand

2 months ago

Yeah, given the number affected a class action might be the way to go. It will take time but lawyers will eat the costs in exchange for a significant cut of the final payout.

ncruces

2 months ago

1 reply

Entire article doesn't answer first question that comes to mind: where does the donation money go to?

KomoD

2 months ago

It goes to Paypal Giving Fund (another 501c3) and then Paypal Giving Fund sends the money to the nonprofit, or if there's a problem sending it to them then "PayPal Giving Fund will (whenever possible) ask you to recommend another, and grant the funds to a similar charity if you don’t respond"

gregw2

2 months ago

Don't IRS Form 990s (for nonprofits) contain an address? Where GoFundMe could proactively send a check upon receiving a donation rather than keeping it until contacted?

(Answer: yes)

So GoFundMe uses info from the public accountability mechanisms when it suits them to collect money, but not when to pass money to donor-desired recipients helping the actual charities?

Slimy.

ChrisArchitect

2 months ago

Reminds of GrubHub and Doordash doing similar a number of years ago: creating listings/pages for restaurants without their knowledge.

Grubhub sued for listing restaurants without permission (2020)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24930436

Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage (2020)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23216852

ameliaquining

2 months ago

Isn't this basically the same thing that Benevity has been doing since forever? Except for the "tip", which I guess is kind of scummy.

nakamoto_damacy

2 months ago

"Disaster Capitalism" strikes again. Everything is configured optimally for creating chaos and protecting profit extraction, at any cost. Legal system? Good luck with that. We are near that stage if not in it already...

View full discussion on Hacker News

ID: 45643553Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 1:08:48 PM

Want the full context?

Jump to the original sources

Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.

Open link View on HN