{"id":11103,"date":"2020-03-18T12:21:04","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T16:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/go-fund-me-free-fundraising-for-the-people-and-causes-you-care-about\/"},"modified":"2020-03-18T12:21:04","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T16:21:04","slug":"go-fund-me-free-fundraising-for-the-people-and-causes-you-care-about","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/go-fund-me-free-fundraising-for-the-people-and-causes-you-care-about\/","title":{"rendered":"Go-Fund Me: Free fundraising for the people and causes you care about"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to leveraging crowdsourcing and the power of community building no one does it better than Go-Fund Me, a free social fundraising company out of California. With a unique value proposition and transparent business model, the mission at Go-Fund Me is one that is smart, simple and safe.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018We empower both individuals and nonprofits to turn compassion into action.\u2019<\/span><\/em>– Go-Fund Me Mission Statement1<\/sup><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nWith an intense focus on creating the giving layer of the internet, Go-Fund Me has opened numerous opportunities to support various causes, organizations, and individuals, while conversely providing an easy to use platform for anyone to create their fundraising campaigns. Since the launch in 2010, Go-Fund Me has rapidly grown into the world\u2019s largest free social fundraising platform \u2018with over $9 billion raised from more than 120 million donations1<\/sup>.\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Value Creation:<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/em><\/p>\n

At the core, Go-Fund Me is a matching service acting as an intermediary between potential donors and recipients providing both parties a platform to interact and transact according to the areas of interest. To be successful in this space, Go-Fund Me quickly realized the importance of developing a deep sense of trust and accountability on both sides of the platform.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a result, the internally established Trust & Safety teams work to protect donors against fraud through mechanisms like a donor protection guarantee, which refunds donations if something is off with the recipients\u2019 campaign2<\/sup>. Likewise, as a beneficiary, if there is a campaign established on their behalf and the organizer fails to deliver any of the funds Go-Fund Me will donate the difference2<\/sup>. Therefore, Go-Fund Me is focused on establishing trust, sense of community, and transparency across both sides of the marketplace which in turn encourages repeat donations and campaign creation.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Go-Fund Me leverages crowdfunding and social networks to break down barriers between those in need of funds and those available to help them, by making these connections happen seamlessly across platforms. By allowing campaign creators and supporters to share the programs which they are passionate about with their communities, this will reinforce a sense of trust and validity to both the platform and campaign. As a result, these campaigns which traditionally would have reached a handful of individuals can indeed be engaged with by the masses cutting across social networks.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Value Capture:<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/em><\/p>\n

Given the market size of annual donations to US charities of ~$390B3<\/sup>, Go-Fund Me has a massive opportunity to help facilitate more targeted safe transactions between parties and the ability to create new campaigns conveniently. Therefore, Go-Fund Me has strategically positioned itself to be a key player in this space by making it easy for campaign creators using templates for a medical, memorial, emergency, nonprofit and education fundraising activities.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the end goal in mind, of creating a supportive community that funds the missions and programs that consumers are passionate about, Go-Fund Me has deployed a unique revenue model with 0% commission or platform fees but rather asks donors to leave a voluntary tip. While competitors charge fees in the range of 5-10% of donations, Go-Fund Me stands by their promise of helping campaigns keep more of the money that they raise4<\/sup>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Go-Fund Me does not charge donors a platform fee they do however charge \u2018recipients a standard processing fee (2.9% + $.30 per transaction), which are deducted from the donation total.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Platform Scalability:<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/em><\/p>\n

As the leader in online fundraising, Go-Fund Me is well-positioned to continue to grow market (donation) share domestically and globally through the robust set of platform capabilities including donor protection guarantee, simple setup, 0% platform fee, social reach, and mobile app. However, as donations historically trend at 2% of GDP and are right side-skewed with a significant amount of donations given as a one-time large sum, I believe the speed by which Go-Fund Me can grow is capped. Besides, most donations are recurring on a monthly or annual basis to charities, religious institutions, home offices and non-profits, which therefore requires a change in the fundamental business model to capture a piece of these transactions.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Platform Sustainability:<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/em><\/p>\n

As a result, Go-Fund Me has developed an offering under it\u2019s \u2018Go-Fund Me Charity\u2019 banner which allows charities to take back control of their fundraising efforts. This robust offering enables charities to own their fundraising data, control their brands through tailor-made content, and engage more donors through social fundraising as an attempt to become the \u2018one-stop\u2019 shop for these organizations when it comes to fundraising and donor management5<\/sup>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise, as Go-Fund Me turns its attention to global expansion it will have to reformulate the business model given the different donation behaviors across cultures and regions. I believe that Go-Fund Me will be successful in its endeavor to develop this platform into a global fundraising mechanism as it has already shown an ability to adapt to changing consumer needs through the Go-Fund Me Charity offering.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now more than ever, with the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic, we need platforms like these to connect donors to causes they care about and quickly provide money to those in need.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources:<\/span><\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/sup> https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/c\/about-us<\/a><\/p>\n

2 <\/sup>https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/c\/safety\/gofundme-guarantee<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/sup> https:\/\/givingusa.org\/giving-usa-2017-total-charitable-donations-rise-to-new-high-of-390-05-billion\/<\/a><\/p>\n

4 <\/sup>https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/c\/free-fundraising<\/a><\/p>\n

5 <\/sup>https:\/\/charity.gofundme.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to leveraging crowdsourcing and the power of community building no one does it better than Go-Fund Me, a free social fundraising company out of California. 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