It is with great pleasure that I announce the appointment of Sharda Caro Del Castillo, Jonathan Mildenhall and Scott Wagner to the GoFundMe Board of Directors.
These world-class leaders with experience leading high-growth technology and fintech companies will add invaluable insight to our business at a time when more people than ever are relying on GoFundMe to mobilize support that addresses their needs and helps them realize their dreams. Their passion and expertise will most certainly help us serve our community better, and advance our mission to build the world’s best place to both ask for, and give, help.
Our company has evolved significantly since GoFundMe was founded in 2010. The platform was created to be a place for people to raise money for what was important to them and to help others. There were no category definitions for the type of fundraiser — GoFundMe gave the community the power to use the platform for what was important to them, whether it was for a wedding, tuition, or a life saving surgery. Over time our community began to shape the platform and, today, GoFundMe is a true reflection of what is important in our society.
We are entering a new stage in our journey. People have raised over $15 billion from over 200 million donations on the GoFundMe platform to support personal causes and nonprofits all around the world. We expect to become an even more impactful global platform over the next ten years. In the near term, GoFundMe will enhance the current fundraising experience, build new ways for anyone to give and get help, and bring our best-in-class fundraising platform to new countries around the world.
While building and operating a modern technology platform is complex, our offering is designed to be simple and easy for fundraisers and donors to use. The combination of three key elements has, and will continue to, define how we seek to serve our community:
- GoFundMe provides a trustworthy, safe and secure platform, so donors and fundraisers can give and receive critical financial support with total transparency and complete confidence. We have a dedicated Trust & Safety team that accounts for one quarter of our employees — these experts from diverse backgrounds including forensic science, government relations and criminal justice, work in conjunction with technology, our GoFundMe community, and local, state and federal officials to verify fundraisers. We also honor and protect donors’ generosity with our GoFundMe Guarantee, the first and only comprehensive refund policy to give peace of mind to donors to personal fundraisers. And we have rigorous security and protection measures in place to ensure that all donations go to the intended beneficiary.
- Our platform has become a powerful engine for funding needs and dreams globally. With one donation made every second on our platform, GoFundMe makes it possible for people to effectively and efficiently give and receive crucial funds. To support and align with our community we have developed a unique business model — anyone can start a fundraiser at no cost, share their story, connect with people who can give, and get help with direct impact. After the payment processing fee, 97% of the donation goes to the recipient, exceptionally efficient when compared to any form of traditional charitable giving. Our company relies on voluntary contributions from our donor community to optimize and operate a secure and innovative platform.
- GoFundMe is a platform where a growing global community of people and businesses are getting through life together — our community of over 100 million come to the platform to exchange stories, amplify their voices, and help others. While there is a lot of work to be done to tackle the world’s socioeconomic disparities, we have started to address the inequalities we see in our own community in partnership with GoFundMe.org, an independent 501c3. Through the creation of Causes and other GoFundMe.org initiatives, we are able to help amplify the voices and expand the benefit of social fundraising to communities that need to be better heard, while eliminating the paradox of choice for donors who want to help.
Our society is still recovering from a global pandemic while some parts of life are starting to return to normal as more people get the Covid-19 vaccine. We see this playing out on GoFundMe with people using the platform to make their dreams a reality. We have been encouraged and inspired by Olympic hopefuls who used the platform to fund their training, Little League teams raising money to travel to regional and state finals, and small businesses not only keeping their doors open, but investing their growth and expansion. The more people get vaccinated, the bigger impact we can have on our community’s needs and dreams.
With our current world-class team and a board of directors with deep knowledge and diverse backgrounds, we are well-positioned to make it easier for people to ask for — and give — help. Helping each other is one of the most important and rewarding things we can do in life and we’re on a quest to make that as easy as humanly possible.
