GoFundMe Issues Apology and Takes Corrective Action on Unauthorized Fundraising Pages
Kentucky Nonprofit Network stood with our partners at the National Council of Nonprofits, state associations across the nation, and fundraising and nonprofit professionals to express our concerns surrounding GoFundMe’s creation of donation pages for 1.4 million charitable nonprofits, including nonprofits in Kentucky, without their knowledge or consent. We also elevated KNN’s concerns with the Office of Consumer Protection at Kentucky’s Office of the Attorney General.
We are grateful to our National Council of Nonprofits partners for communicating directly and effectively with GoFundMe about their breach of trust on behalf of nonprofits in Kentucky and beyond. We are pleased to share that the company has issued an apology to the nonprofit community, as well as outlined the actions they will take to remove the unauthorized pages, prevent further harm, and rebuild trust.
It’s our understanding that GoFundMe has agreed to:
- Remove all unclaimed Nonprofit Pages.
- Change the default so that Nonprofit Pages do not automatically have SEO optimization.
- Remove and deindex the Nonprofit Pages so they no longer appear in online searches.
- Give nonprofits the choice to opt-in to creating a Nonprofit Page.
GoFundMe has committed to release easy-to-use information soon providing guidance to nonprofits who want to remove a Nonprofit Page that was previously claimed, set up a Nonprofit Page, or make changes.
Nonprofits across Kentucky and across our nation face significant challenges – among them, challenges related to funding. This incident was a frustrating distraction from vital work. If your nonprofit has ongoing issues with this issue, please contact KNN.
A strong, unified nonprofit voice resulted in corrective action taken by GoFundMe. Advocacy works.
