GoFundMe launches new services for charitable fundraising

• Published date: 01 December 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30691
• Date: 01 December 2019

DECEMBER 2019 NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

7

© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

Fundraising

GoFundMe launches new services

for charitable fundraising

GoFundMe, a leading crowdfunding platform, has

launched two new services aimed at helping charitable

groups solicit cash donations from their supporters

worldwide.

First, GoFundMe Charity will offer a suite of

new tools and features that nonprots can sign up

for through the GoFundMe online portal, including:

• A “No Platform Fee” model and exible pricing

plans. The company’s nonprot customers will have

a choice of two transaction-based pricing plans—ei-

ther a guaranteed 0% platform fee with an option for

donors to leave a voluntary “tip” for GoFundMe’s

services and support or a exible option with donor-

covered fees.

• Advanced data reporting. This will allow nonprof-

its to quickly receive the data insights they need to

track and measure their success on the site through

the new Report Center that offers the ability to build

custom queries, tools for data visualization and the

option to schedule reports. Charities will also receive

reports on personal fundraisers raising money on

their behalf on the GoFundMe platform, the com-

pany said.

• Free integrations with CRM tools. According to

the company, GoFundMe Charity will upload data

directly into many of the most widely used customer

relationship management and marketing programs,

such as Salesforce, Mailchimp and Constant Contact,

to help charities grow and retain donors.

• Registration and ticketing tools for events. The

platform will enable nonprots to manage the reg-

istration and ticketing components of a fundraising

event from any device at any time, with all the data

in one place—regardless of the size or complexity of

the event itself.

• Customizable campaigns to reect the brand.

Nonprots will be able to easily customize buttons,

logos, donation and fundraising pages, and ticket

and registration components to match their brand,

with no developer code required, the company said.

In addition, the company is also launching a new

Study shows post-recession per-household giving stayed steady

Charitable giving in the years after the Great Re-

cession has changed in some key ways, but one thing

has remained relatively stable: the average amount

given per donor household. That’s the main takeaway

from a new report published by the Indiana Universi-

ty Lilly Family School of Philanthropy that analyzes

the effects of the 2008 Great Recession on charitable

giving across various donor demographic groups

and examines differences pre- and post-recession.

The report—Changes to the Giving Landscape—

finds that the average amount given by donor

households—as measured by the percentage of

household income given to charity—remained

relatively constant over time, despite the economic

downturn. When looking at subpopulations divided

by income, some groups modestly increased their

giving, while others—particularly households led by

individuals with less than a high school education,

under $50,000 in income and/or under $50,000 in

wealth—gave slightly less. But, overall, giving levels

stayed relatively stable.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that the

recession spurred a sizable decrease in the propor-

tion of households that give to charity—from nearly

two-thirds of U.S. households in 2000 to about half

of households in 2016, a 13% decrease, the report

found. This decline in the overall share of house-

holds who gave represents 20 million fewer donor

households, leading to ongoing funding challenges

that nonprots are faced with today.

The report details a host of other insights for

nonprots and donors on the opportunities and

challenges facing the future of philanthropy fol-

lowing the Great Recession. But perhaps most im-

portantly, the researchers said, the ndings conrm

that even during economic downturns, a majority

of donors will continue to give and nonprots can

continue raising funds to fulll their missions.

To access the report in full, visit https://

bit.ly/2PoS4d2. ■

(See FUNDRAISING on page 8)