GoFundMe’s Nonprofit Pages Prompt Fundraising Debate

By Amanda L. Cole

When Rachel Bearbower searched online for her small Iowa town’s Fourth of July parade in mid-October, the top result wasn’t the Scarville on the Fourth website — it was a GoFundMe page she had never created.

As volunteer president of the Scarville Booster Club, the nonprofit behind the parade for her hometown of about 70 people, she was caught off guard. The page looked official, carried the organization’s name and quickly outranked the real site on Google — even appearing in the AI-generated overview.

“I just got frustrated,” Bearbower, who is also the founder and CEO of Nonprofit Automation Agency, which helps organizations streamline donor stewardship, said. “I worked so hard to make sure we were No. 1 when people search the parade, and then, with this GoFundMe page, it's now No. 1. What the heck?”

Bearbower wasn’t alone. GoFundMe had automatically created public fundraising pages for nearly all IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) charities in the United States using publicly available data. A GoFundMe spokesperson said no artificial intelligence was used to create the listings, and attributed inaccuracies to outdated third-party data sources.

Each of the 1.4 million pages allowed the public to donate directly, share the listing or launch a fundraiser on the nonprofit’s behalf — even if the organization had never hosted a peer-to-peer fundraiser on GoFundMe or signed up for GoFundMe Pro, the company’s paid suite of fundraising tools.

As backlash from nonprofits heated up last week, GoFundMe responded and removed all of the unverified nonprofit pages.

“Nonprofit pages help connect nonprofits with new donors and empower supporters to give and fundraise, and enable communities to rally behind the causes they care about,” a GoFundMe spokesperson told NonProfit PRO via email. “That said, we’ve heard the concerns raised about these pages and understand that, for some nonprofits, this approach didn’t land as intended. We take that feedback seriously and are genuinely sorry for missing the mark. We’re listening, learning and committed to improving how we represent and partner with nonprofits moving forward.”

GoFundMe’s Nonprofit Pages: What Happened — And Why Nonprofits Pushed Back

Donors already trust GoFundMe. With a 200 million-person community and 65,000 nonprofits receiving GoFundMe donations last year, the company saw an opportunity to further connect that audience with nonprofit’s charitable causes.

The move followed a notable shift in the online peer-to-peer giving landscape. Since Meta ended recurring donations, stopped covering transaction fees and changed payout terms in 2023, Facebook fundraisers have lost traction. In fact, Facebook fundraiser revenue dropped 42% last year, according to the 2025 M+R “Benchmarks” report, leaving a gap in peer-to-peer giving that GoFundMe appeared poised to fill.

GoFundMe has been rolling out its nonprofit pages in batches since late 2024 and spreading the word this year through efforts that include marketing, social media, nonprofit media and industry events, a GoFundMe spokesperson said via email. Many didn’t discover the pages were live until earlier this month, though.

The Rollout and Its Features

Each page displayed the organization’s name, mission statement, EIN and a donation button. A small “i” icon disclosed that “[nonprofit name] has not provided consent or permission for this page,” but only if a user hovered over it.

GoFundMe applies a standard transaction fee (2.2% plus $0.30 per donation) and moves the funds to PayPal Giving Fund, a donor-advised intermediary that collects and redistributes donations monthly for enrolled nonprofits. PayPal Giving Fund’s terms state that if a listed nonprofit cannot be funded, the donation may be redirected to a “similar nonprofit.” Donors received receipts from PayPal Giving Fund — not from the nonprofit itself — and charities only received donor information if individuals opted to share it.

Organizations seeing a quicker payout can opt in to GoFundMe Pay, the company’s internal payment processor, to receive faster transfers and more payment options, such as ACH, PayPal and Venmo, each with varying transaction fees.

The platform also included an optional tip feature that defaulted to around 16%, framed as a way to support GoFundMe’s operations.

A common limitation to these third-party campaigns is access to donor data. GoFundMe allows donors to opt in to share their data, including name and email, with the organization. Other details available to nonprofits include date, time, donation amount, fundraiser name and all fundraisers created on your organization’s behalf.

GoFundMe issues the gift receipt to donors directly, but that data can be synced to their donor database if a pre-built integration exists with GoFundMe Pro.

Why It Sparked Pushback

GoFundMe Pro published the pages before nonprofits had the chance to vet them — or even confirm they wanted them to exist in the first place. While some organizations may appreciate the passive income, others viewed the unauthorized nonprofit pages as an overreach.

“I think my frustration is just, like, a general sadness for our sector because it's, like, we work so freaking hard and something like this happens and it's like, ‘Oh gosh, no wonder donors get frustrated with us,’” Bearbower said.

Consent and Transparency

For Alex Szebenyi, co-founder and chief technology officer at Acquaint, the discovery was jarring. The Bellevue, Washington-based nonprofit, which promotes human connection through one-on-one conversations, is working toward sustainability, with $60,000 in revenue last year.

“Nonprofits are as different as people,” he said. “And that's why opt-in is a really good thing, because that way the people who it might really negatively impact don't have to do it.”

Bearbower agreed.

“I want to be able to choose the giving platform that my organization is using based on a whole host of reasons, like whatever they are,” she said. “ … I shouldn't have to compete for SEO real estate. … My primary giving page should not be bumped by a page or by a platform that I didn't sign up for.”

Brand Control and Reputation

Brand accuracy was another concern. Jessica Ureña, director of development at EXP, said her Long Beach, California-based organization — legally known as the International Trade Education Program Inc. — prefers its doing-business-as name for branding. A paying GoFundMe Pro customer, she didn’t want donors finding a second, unauthorized page heading into year-end.

“We have access to changing the copy,” she said. “We have access to who the donors are and all of that information [on our main donation page], which then allows us to convert a one-time donor who comes to our page to a longer term donor, which ultimately benefits my nonprofit in the long run, so that we can continue to engage our donors in the important work that we do.”

Before GoFundMe removed unclaimed pages, Acquaint’s listing displayed an outdated logo with its previous name and broken social media links. When Szebenyi asked to have the page taken down since his organization uses Pledge for its main donation page, a GoFundMe rep directed him to claim the page.

“They're holding my misinformation hostage until I go and agree not to sue them and all these other things,” he said. “... So you do something without my consent, and then you try to get me to agree to your legal terms in order to do it — and that felt really shady.”

Data and Donor Relationships

For smaller nonprofits, like Ureña’s $1 million organization that connects high schoolers to workforce development programs, fixing these issues takes valuable time from their missions.

Though Ureña — who oversees a development team of three — was frustrated when her organization’s GoFundMe page was live, she wasn’t going to spend the time addressing it until after year-end.

“That's time that I could be spending with a donor and our mission, taking them to a school site to see the work that we do that will result in funding for our nonprofit mission, instead of having to spend time dealing with a vendor,” Ureña, who ignored pop-up notifications about the nonprofit pages in the nonprofit’s donor database, said.

Bearbower hides transaction fees and tips on her preferred platform, Givebutter, to avoid confusing donors, especially older ones.

“It's going to frustrate them, it's going to confuse them and it's going to erode that donor trust, because … they're not going to be like, ‘Oh, GoFundMe charged me a fee or a tip.’ They're going to be like, ‘That nonprofit I just donated to charged me 20 extra bucks.’”

The Backtrack

On Oct. 22, GoFundMe removed tips and logos on unclaimed pages and added an SEO toggle for verified pages. Two days later, it fully reversed course, removing and de-indexing all unclaimed nonprofit pages. Nonprofit pages are now opt-in only and require verification through identification, email or other documentation to confirm authorization. The company’s long-standing nonprofit directory remains, though.

“We are committed to creating stronger feedback loops with nonprofit representatives to ensure future product releases are shaped in deeper partnership with nonprofits,” a GoFundMe spokesperson said via email. “Our goal remains to support the nonprofit sector — making giving easy for donors, empowering nonprofits with tools to thrive and doing so in a way that reflects our shared values of trust and transparency.”

Despite the backtrack, nonprofits have had a tumultuous year, and say they didn’t need the distraction or the stress.

“I’m not convinced they saw how their strategy negatively impacted nonprofits, only that it was negatively received,” Ureña said via email this week, noting she is debating whether to renew her GoFundMe Pro contract in June 2026.

But what all nonprofits we spoke to agreed on was holding nonprofit tech accountable.

“Nonprofits simply held GoFundMe to the same standards we hold ourselves: Ask for consent, do no harm and be transparent if you want to work with us,” Szebenyi said via email this week.

“Going forward, it's important that we continue to keep tech companies accountable for how they work and operate within the sector,” Bearbower, whose organization regained its No. 1 Google rank once pages were de-indexed, added via email. “Other platforms have been doing this for years, but no one really caught on because there wasn't as big of an SEO footprint. We all have a bottom line — and we all have to work together.”

When Innovation Outpaces Compliance: What Nonprofits Can Do Now

Like many fundraising platforms, GoFundMe operates as a for-profit company with a nonprofit-facing division, GoFundMe Pro, which was rebranded from Classy following its 2022 acquisition. However, donations made through the platform are largely processed through a nonprofit intermediary, PayPal Giving Fund.

The renewed attention highlights a broader problem: As online giving becomes more sophisticated, charitable solicitation laws have struggled to keep up. While each nonprofit must register to solicit in its home state, as well as in any states where it actively targets or receives substantial donations, few states have addressed online fundraising directly.

The California Charitable Solicitation Registration Act, aka AB 488, is the first to attempt comprehensive regulation of online charitable platforms. Because digital giving crosses state lines, AB 488 has effectively become the national default — since any platform soliciting California donors must comply with its requirements. However, it remains largely untested, leaving much of the responsibility to the sector’s own ethics and standards to maintain donor trust.

“I'm not aware of a law here in California that requires you to obtain advanced consent before soliciting on behalf of a charity,” Casey Williams, partner and nonprofit practice group chair, Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, said. “The law requires that when you do that — I decide I want to go out and I want to campaign for my local PTA. I have to be honest, I have to be forthright, I have to be clear in my communications to avoid any sort of deceptive or unclear practices.”

For small nonprofits, though, even short-lived confusion can have a lasting impact. Here are a few steps nonprofits can take to monitor and manage their online presence.

1. Clarify Official Donation Channels

Use your nonprofit’s websites and social media to guide supporters to verified giving options. Explicitly list trusted platforms — or clarify which ones the organization doesn’t use — to prevent confusion before it starts.

2. Monitor Your Nonprofit’s Online Footprint

Regularly search your organization’s name on GoFundMe and other fundraising sites that aggregate Form 990 information. Screenshot any unauthorized use or inaccurate information. Aggregators are not new, Williams said, but the trend is growing.

“The ability to control trademarks and logos and brands, and to say, ‘The information you have is inaccurate. Please take down inaccurate information,’ is where the law of fraud and misrepresentations and trademarks might play out,” she said.

3. File Written Objections When Needed

Sending written takedown requests or cease-and-desist letters not only protects brand control but also establishes a record in case issues resurface. Williams emphasized that trademark protection is an active responsibility.

“So nonprofits, I think, should take away from this situation — we actually have to monitor our trademarks, and when we see our name being used or referenced — or our logo — we have to speak up if we really don't want those platforms or other types of organizations using it,” she said.

4. Report Persistent Issues to Regulators

Unauthorized pages can be reported to your state attorney general’s charitable trusts division, which oversees many nonprofit functions, including online fundraising compliance, or the Federal Trade Commission, which investigates deceptive practices in interstate commerce.

“Are you being forthright with consumers when you are putting up that page, and how much of the money that you're soliciting is going genuinely to the charity, because that's what the regulators are really concerned about,” Williams said.

5. Review Terms Carefully Before Opting In

Williams said nonprofits should evaluate each platform’s design and transparency before opting in. Across industries, the Federal Trade Commission has raised concerns about “dark patterns” online — interfaces that nudge users into unintended choices through visual cues or default settings.

“What's happening is not just somebody putting up a page and saying, ‘Give to the local PTA.’ They're saying, ‘Put up a page and tip me for putting up the page,’” Williams said. “And I think that's the piece that's raising some significant concerns and questions about whether these practices are … good for the sector.”

Before agreeing to any platform’s terms, confirm that the company’s disclosures and fee structures align with your nonprofit’s values.

“Stewardship is at the core of what most nonprofits do when it comes to getting people to give to their very worthy causes,” Williams said. “So they want to be looking really closely at these charitable platforms before consenting to any terms and conditions, just to see, like, are these practices consistent with the way we want our donors to be communicated with?”