GoFundMe has turned its sights beyond crowdfunding, which has been historically received by historically charitable products. The latest tool for the fundraising platform is providing funding, a spin on donor-suggested funds, which provides participants with lower entry barriers and aims to free up more charitable dollars nationwide.
Launched today (June 30), it provides free use of funds, with no administrative fees or minimum balance requirements. “We have built funds to provide everyone with an easy way to manage their charitable donations in one place, and these expenses or barriers once made it impossible for most people to realize donor funds,” said Tim Cadogan, CEO of Gofundme, in a statement.
Donor-suggested Funds (DAFS) allow individuals to donate to the fund, receive tax breaks immediately, and allocate grants to charities over time. They are particularly favored by the rich – a 2025 survey found that 96% of the 2,100 DAF users had net worth over $1 million and were criticized by some for their mild transparency requirements and tax-free benefits.
Currently, only about 1% of Americans use DAF, said Sarah Peck, vice president of communications at Gofundme. “Providing funds provides an easy new way to manage your charitable donations, and you don’t have to be familiar with the world’s donors’ funds to get started,” she told Observer in an emailed statement.
The vast majority of these funds are not allocated for over $250 million held in traditional DAFs. GoFundMe says the accessibility of its new tools could help speed up the current charity grant development. Gofundme said that users have 1.4 million charities to choose from and can give it to $5, the tool effectively serves as a “personal charity wallet.”
To attract donors to donate, GoFundMe will use discovery, advice, and sharing features to help users find organizations that align with them. The platform will also provide emergency relief easily and quickly during the crisis through surfaced nonprofits.
GoFundMe’s pivot into the nonprofit sector
Founded in 2010, GoFundMe is known for its crowdfunding campaigns, which in some cases have become so common that the entire industry relies on the platform to pay for costs. It has accumulated more than 200 million users and earlier this year celebrated over $40 billion in fundraising in the past 15 years.
In recent months, the company has tried to go beyond its roots and expand further into its nonprofit sector. “Charity donations have hovered around 2% of U.S. GDP for decades,” Cadogan said. “We believe that with the right tools, we can help improve this.”
Funding is part of a wider range of new tools launched by GoFundMe to expand its reach and impact. Over the past year, the company has introduced features such as profiles, a customizable feature for individual users; real-time fundraising activities that make donation drives live; and GoFundMe Pro, a software solution designed for nonprofits.
GoFundMe enters the competitive landscape with its latest DAF-inspired products. DAFS (managed by community foundations, corporate charities and increasingly managed by fintech startups like Daffy) has seen a surge in popularity. According to a recent report, DAFS allocated about $54.7 billion in grants in 2023 alone, while charitable assets held in these funds rose 9.9% year-on-year to $251.5 billion.
GoFundMe dares to say that by making DAFS more accessible, it can unlock historically suitable markets for the rich. “Unlike traditional DAFs, donating funds is to make it easy for anyone to intentionally and easily support the cause they care about and to provide more money to nonprofits that need them,” Peck said.
