GoFundMe created 1.4M donation pages for nonprofits; organizations had no clue

SAN BRUNO, Calif. (KGO) -- A new product from GoFundMe is intended to solicit donations for nonprofit organizations. But in one local case, several organizations had no clue these pages even exist.

Dave Dornlas is the treasurer for the Friends of the San Bruno Public Library and the president of the San Bruno Amateur Radio Club.

Recently, he got a call from the library that left him puzzled.

"One of our patrons at the library... they wanted to make a donation in someone's name who had passed away," Dornlas said.

Dornlas said the person went online and found a GoFundMe page tied to the library's nonprofit and wanted to know if it was legit or not.

"It was something that we did not set up and were a little concerned about," Dornlas said. "We weren't sure what was going on."

Turns out GoFundMe created the page -- but Dornlas had no clue.

And he's not the only one.

GoFundMe has taken upon itself to create "nonprofit pages" for 1.4 million 501C-3 organizations using public IRS data along with information from trusted partners like the PayPal Giving Fund.

According to the company, "this allows individuals across GoFundMe's 200 million-strong global community to easily discover and donate to nonprofit organizations, helping them support causes and charitable missions they care about, even if the organization hasn't actively created a GoFundMe campaign."

Krista Lamp is the senior director of Non-Profit Communications at GoFundMe.

"What we were finding is that people were already organically coming to GoFundMe to support nonprofit orgs," Lamp said, adding that in 2024, GoFundMe supported 70,000 nonprofit organizations.

Lamp explains some nonprofits will claim the page -- meaning the organization gains full visibility over donor data, donor stewardship branding, and how they choose to leverage their page.

But according to Dornlas, both the library and radio club nonprofits' pages were not claimed, leaving him frustrated GoFundMe didn't consult him first.

"The fact that they would just on their own build pages for nonprofits that they've never spoken to is a problem," he said. "I'm a believer in opt-in, not opt-out."

"Is there an opportunity in the future for GoFundMe to contact these nonprofits directly prior to creating the pages?" asked 7 On Your Side's Stephanie Sierra to Lamp.

"I think the more we can communicate and speak to the nonprofits directly is always beneficial to us... As we continue later in 2025 and 2026, we plan to do more communication directly to nonprofits about the nonprofit pages," Lamp said.

However, Dornlas says he struggled to find anyone to contact from GoFundMe about this. So he reached out to 7 On Your Side for help.

"Only after you became involved, after Channel 7 got involved, they contacted me..." he said.

Dave's other frustration is tied to the company's optional tipping feature on the platform.

"GoFundMe also solicits a tip of 14.5%. In other words, 'We're doing this and we're great people. Give us 14.5% to do this' -- which doesn't have to happen," Dornlas said. "That's what bothers me."

When 7 On Your Side checked, the optional tip was actually set for 16.5%. The consumer is required to move the bar to adjust accordingly.

"These completely optional contributions really make it possible for us to offer our fundraising tools, our customer support and really support our global team of trust and safety experts," Lamp said. "We know that the majority of donors interact with the slider, whether they move it up or all the way down to zero."

The tip would be in addition to the 2.2% transaction fee GoFundMe charges nonprofits, plus $0.30 per donation. That fee goes up to 2.9% for individual fundraisers.

Now both GoFundMe pages of Dornlas's nonprofits have been removed from the site. Any organization can do so, by clicking "unpublish" on the platform. To reach a GoFundMe representative, you can go to support.gofundme.com.

Take a look at more stories and videos by 7 On Your Side.

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