Can we talk about GoFundMe?

speakeasy14

Vent time:

So my sister's boyfriend's grandmother suddenly passed away.  The grandmother cared for several children (not sure if she adopted them or they just lived with her), and she had no money.  The family has started a GoFundMe to gather money for her funeral.  My sister shared it with the family asking if we could each contribute something.  I told her they take a percent so I would rather give directly.  Now the rest of my family is asking about these fees so I pulled up their facts section, and sent this this:

Does it cost anything?

While it's free to create and share your online fundraising campaign, GoFundMe will deduct a 5% fee from each donation that you receive. Since our fee is deducted automatically, you'll never need to worry about being billed or owing us any money. A small processing fee of about 3% will also be deducted from each donation. Please see Pricing & Fees for more info. 

Beware of other services that claim to be 100% Free - they'll actually charge your donors instead.

Can someone explain to me how charging 8% for fees and processing for each donation is not charging donors?!  

AlPacina

speakeasy14 said:

Can someone explain to me how charging 8% for fees and processing for each donation is not charging donors?!  

Not me. They're paying for convenience, is all. Although it's not convenient to take away money that's supposed to be going towards a cause. Isn't that basically taking money from a charity?

So and so gave 1 Million dollars to orphans..... GoFundMe takes 80,000 dollars away..... That could house a lot of orphans.

speakeasy14

Oh I get that. Either way I still see it as person A being charged since in the second scenario the donation ends up being $90 instead of $100. 

I got an address so I'm sending directly.  It just bothers me that these things are set up for situations where every penny helps and people are not receiving the intended donations. I guess that's why I find these sites so frustrating.

eilis1228

One of FI's friend's house burned down a few months ago. We specifically gave money to the friend directly instead of going through the GoFundMe someone set up for them. I don't think a lot of people realize that websites like this and honeymoon registries take a percentage of the amount given. Or if they do, they just don't care that much. I think it's ridiculous to take 5-8%. That's quite a bit of money!

speakeasy14

 

lavenderfields13

I thought this thread was going to be about a terrible GoFund me story. People set those things up for the stupidest shit and it pisses me off. 

speakeasy14

Now I'm exploring --- completely ignoring the wedding section for now, gonna need at least an hour to mock that --  there's a whole section for travel.  Wait, there are people willing to pay for other people to go on vacation!?!?!  

ETA --- hold on it gets worse CLICK

lavenderfields13

speakeasy14 said:

Now I'm exploring --- completing ignoring the wedding section for now, gonna need at least an hour to mock that --  there's a whole section for travel.  Wait, there are people willing to pay for other people to go on vacation!?!?!  

Ha, I was commenting above at the same time as you- I thought this was going to be about something ridiculous like that. People are awful. 

speakeasy14

@lavenderfields13 I'm speechless right now

jenna8984

Oh yea, we have many stories on the chit chat board. Probably once a week someone makes a thread about a ridiculous one on their newsfeed!

But yea, the general public is too stupid to know they are paying fees.

I also don't want to be a bitch in a shitty situation, but it pisses me off so badly when people who have/ care for small children don't have life insurance. Not just this woman but I see it all the time, just last week someone on my FB posted for a father who died with a 2 & 7 year old and they were raising money for living expenses. I promise you, people, life insurance is not that expensive, if you have kids you need it almost more than you need health insurance.

MissKittyDanger

@jenna8984 I'm not sure if it's same there, but many times I see things with a GoFundMe when a parent dies and they're having issues with paying funeral it's because insurance doesn't kick in for awhile. When my dad passed, the accounts got immediately frozen and she had to live off of her own income while trying to pay for funeral arrangements. {Side note: my dad wasn't allowed to have life insurance as he had a head injury.}

We didn't use GoFundMe but we did have our funeral place walk us through the steps of how we could get assistance.

lavenderfields13

jenna8984 said:

Oh yea, we have many stories on the chit chat board. Probably once a week someone makes a thread about a ridiculous one on their newsfeed!

But yea, the general public is too stupid to know they are paying fees.

I also don't want to be a bitch in a shitty situation, but it pisses me off so badly when people who have/ care for small children don't have life insurance. Not just this woman but I see it all the time, just last week someone on my FB posted for a father who died with a 2 & 7 year old and they were raising money for living expenses. I promise you, people, life insurance is not that expensive, if you have kids you need it almost more than you need health insurance.

I feel the same way and feel kind of bad for thinking it. IDK, I guess it's nice to see people come together to do a good thing for someone else but people really should think more about making sure their family is taken care of. 

lavenderfields13

MissKittyDanger said:

@jenna8984 I'm not sure if it's same there, but many times I see things with a GoFundMe when a parent dies and they're having issues with paying funeral it's because insurance doesn't kick in for awhile. When my dad passed, the accounts got immediately frozen and she had to live off of her own income while trying to pay for funeral arrangements. {Side note: my dad wasn't allowed to have life insurance as he had a head injury.}

We didn't use GoFundMe but we did have our funeral place walk us through the steps of how we could get assistance.

I don't know much about insurance but what happens when the insurance does kick in if they have it and the costs are taken care of- what about all that money people donated?

speakeasy14

@jenna8984 I completely agree with you; my initial response was "that's what life insurance is for."  Honestly, I don't know this family which is why I'm not sure if she had adopted these kids or not, I just know they lived with her.  Basically, I'm helping only because my sister asked.

Back to snarking -- I went through the wedding page.  There's one to raise money to put down a deposit for a venue.  I'm sorry but if you cannot afford a deposit, you should not be booking that place.

MissKittyDanger

lavenderfields13 said:

show previous quotes

MissKittyDanger said:

@jenna8984 I'm not sure if it's same there, but many times I see things with a GoFundMe when a parent dies and they're having issues with paying funeral it's because insurance doesn't kick in for awhile. When my dad passed, the accounts got immediately frozen and she had to live off of her own income while trying to pay for funeral arrangements. {Side note: my dad wasn't allowed to have life insurance as he had a head injury.}

We didn't use GoFundMe but we did have our funeral place walk us through the steps of how we could get assistance.

I don't know much about insurance but what happens when the insurance does kick in if they have it and the costs are taken care of- what about all that money people donated?

Maybe it's different in Canada. I've seen insurance companies take their sweet time here
As to the bolded .... my only assumption is that when insurance comes back the people would pay the funders back? One can only hope

minskat30

I hate Go Fund Me with a passion.  I *just* can't with some people's sense of entitlement.  I also agree @jenna8984 - that is what life insurance is for.  I have it, H has it and we don't even have kids.  There are certain situations that are truly freak accidents but most can be insured around so you don't have to beg people for money.  

[Deleted User]

I'm with @minskat30.  I can't stand Go Fund Me.  A couple I knew started one to make repairs on their house.  And when my brother asked if he and his fiancée could set one up for their wedding, I pounced on him.  (It doesn't matter that he turned out to be joking.  I can't even tell with that kid.)

speakeasy14

Why didn't I think of having people fund my home remodel!? 

AlPacina

I've just decided to start a GoFundMe to get pandas at the Portland zoo. EVERYONE HELP!!! I NEED MORE PANDA IN MY LIFE!!!

speakeasy14

Let's start a gofundme for our NEY get together in Chicago!

minskat30

@AlPacina - Finally a cause I will support.

I want a polar bear as a pet so I think I'll start a Go Fund Me for that

That way he and Raj can be all...

AlPacina

speakeasy14 said:

Let's start a gofundme for our NEY get together in Chicago!

YES! Cost of the trip obviously being:

AlPacina

minskat30 said:

That way he and Raj can be all...

@minskat30 - OMG..... Dogs and polar bears together are the cutest!!! (I only learned this while googling pictures. It's not something I knew previously.)

MissKittyDanger

@AlPacina Toronto Zoo has pandas I'm hoping to go next year and see them

AlPacina

@MissKittyDanger - Oh, you can BET I'm getting to Toronto at some point in time. I've seen them in San Diego three times and Washington DC once.

My mom is the coolest and wants to go on a trip with me somewhere in the next couple of years. HER IDEA? Make a trip to Memphis AND Atlanta in one go, since they're relatively close to each other, we'd both like to visit both of those cities, ANDPLUSALSO they both have pandas.

I love my mom. 

labro

AlPacina said:

@MissKittyDanger - Oh, you can BET I'm getting to Toronto at some point in time. I've seen them in San Diego three times and Washington DC once.

My mom is the coolest and wants to go on a trip with me somewhere in the next couple of years. HER IDEA? Make a trip to Memphis AND Atlanta in one go, since they're relatively close to each other, we'd both like to visit both of those cities, ANDPLUSALSO they both have pandas.

I love my mom. 

AND PLUSALSO Atlanta has me and @southernpeach89!!!!!

speakeasy14

@alpacina I think you need to start a go fund me to be able to see all the pandas planning some trips Click here

AlPacina

speakeasy14 said:

@alpacina I think you need to start a go fund me to be able to see all the pandas planning some trips Click here

I have one of those already! Except I don't call it a GoFundMe. It's called a second savings account. It's funded by the money from my paychecks that I don't spend each month.

Current total is $1520.00. And I'm saving up for THIS 10 day volunteering trip!

speakeasy14

AlPacina said:

show previous quotes

speakeasy14 said:

@alpacina I think you need to start a go fund me to be able to see all the pandas planning some trips Click here

I have one of those already! Except I don't call it a GoFundMe. It's called a second savings account. It's funded by the money from my paychecks that I don't spend each month.

Current total is $1520.00. And I'm saving up for THIS 10 day volunteering trip!

That's right yours GFM is getting you a panda. Silly me.  

But that volunteering trip is awesome!