GoFundMe has recently come under scrutiny for creating unauthorized donation pages for over one million organizations on its platform, a move that has raised alarm particularly among nonprofits in Pennsylvania that are already grappling with financial challenges due to the state budget stalemate and the federal government shutdown. One affected entity, Pittsburgh Community Services, which provides essential services such as food pantries and housing assistance, voiced its frustrations regarding the lack of communication surrounding this initiative.
Sarah Cook, the executive director of the agency, expressed her concerns, saying, “It’s just a lot, and we’re trying very hard to do our best for all of the customers that we serve. We’re able to maintain that high level of service, but distractions like this make it frustrating.” The organization discovered the situation only after an email from Anne Gingerich, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations, brought it to their attention. Gingerich noted that they were informed just recently that GoFundMe had utilized public information from 1.4 million U.S. nonprofits to create these pages without prior consent.
As of Thursday morning, searching online revealed a range of unauthorized pages dedicated to various nonprofits in the Pittsburgh area. Gingerich raised concerns regarding the custody of the donations that these pages could potentially attract, questioning how the funds would be managed. Additionally, every donation made to a GoFundMe page incurs a processing fee for the platform, raising further concerns about the financial implications for nonprofits.
In response to the backlash, GoFundMe issued a statement acknowledging that their recent rollout of Nonprofit Pages caused confusion and distracted from the crucial missions of the nonprofits they intended to support. They have since announced plans to address the issue, stating that pages which have not been claimed and verified will be removed, and unclaimed nonprofit pages will be de-indexed to prevent them from appearing in search results.
Moving forward, Cook hopes that any significant initiatives by large organizations like GoFundMe will include collaboration with the nonprofits they aim to assist, ensuring that their efforts align more closely with the needs of the communities they serve. This situation, while challenging, highlights the importance of communication and collaboration between large platforms and the organizations they aim to support.