Digital crowdfunding platform GoFundMe has today announced that it has dropped its 5 per cent platform fee and will now “rely on voluntary tips from donors”.
GoFundMe made the announcement today to coincide with its first anniversary since launching in the United Kingdom. The platform said it would now rely entirely on “voluntary tips from donors to help with the costs associated with providing its best in class customer service, trust and safety protections, and social fundraising technology”.
A spokesman for GoFundMe said the tips model will see donors being “asked to contribute to the platform at the checkout” having made a donation to a page. Users of the platform will still be charged “an industry standard processing fee” of 2.9 per cent.
The decision to move to a tips model was made following what GoFundMe called “successful launches [of the model] in the US and Canada”.
The American based crowdfunding platform says it is now the “only major peer-to-peer fundraising platform available in the UK that doesn’t charge a platform fee”, however Facebook announced it would be scrapping all fees on donations to non-profits when it launched its personal fundraising platform in the UK at the end of last year.
GoFundMe has raised in excess of £3.6bn globally. In its first year in the UK it raised “tens of millions” of pounds, processed 7,500 donations a day and had 40,000 campaigns set up on its platform.
Rob Solomon, chief executive of GoFundMe, said: “We’ve been amazed by the generosity of people in the UK since we launched here. We want to mark that anniversary by giving GoFundMe organisers in the UK the chance to raise even more money for the causes they love without a platform fee. We’re looking forward to seeing more people giving and getting the help they need.
“As we’ve rolled this new model out in the US, we've had a huge amount of positive feedback from our community. It’s a win-win move, and we think people in the UK will recognise the outstanding service we provide - and now we’re offering that service for free.”
JustGiving and Crowdfunder both currently charge 5 per cent platform fees, while Virgin Money Giving charges a 2 per cent fee.
GoFundMe working on Gift Aid capabilities for charities
Civil Society News also understands that GoFundMe is working towards being able to offer Gift Aid capabilities for charities “in the coming months”.
A GoFundMe source said the platform hoped to be able to announce Gift Aid capabilities for charities “sometime in the spring”, but couldn’t give any further details.
Currently GoFundMe is only open to individual fundraisers in the UK, but is expected to expand its offer to organisations in the coming months.
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