Facing Nonprofit Fury, GoFundMe Reverses Course

After a week of backlash from nonprofits angry that donation pages GoFundMe created for their organizations were showing up high in searches by donors, the company has announced it is making the pages opt-in and removing and de-indexing pages that have not been claimed. Tim Cadogan, GoFundMe’s CEO, also issued an apology to nonprofits for the initial policy.

“We are very sorry for this and take responsibility for missing the mark,” he said in a statement provided to the Chronicle and posted on LinkedIn. “Trust is foundational to our work with nonprofits, and we are fully committed to rebuilding it through better communication, collaboration, and partnership.”

GoFundMe Pro will take the following actions, according to Cadogan’s statement:

• Make nonprofit pages opt-in only. “Moving forward, only nonprofits that opt in to their Nonprofit Page and complete the verification process will have a public Nonprofit Page that is searchable on GoFundMe — making these Nonprofit Pages a completely opt-in experience.”
• De-index unclaimed nonprofit pages. “We will remove and de-index the Nonprofit Pages that are not claimed so they no longer appear in search engine results. Once a nonprofit opts in, they can choose to index their Nonprofit Page, turn SEO on, and edit their Nonprofit Page.”

Nonprofits Had Sought an Apology

The anger over the donation pages had been growing all week.

Nonprofits were unhappy with GoFundMe’s initial response because it made them feel they weren’t being heard, said Otis Fulton, vice president of psychological strategy at the consulting firm Turnkey, before the company’s change in policy. He said that people who have been harmed want an apology that includes “taking responsibility and acknowledging that there’s fault.”

The new statement seemed to hit the mark. National Council on Nonprofits CEO Diane Yentel lauded the changes.

“The company has issued an apology to nonprofits and outlined the specific actions they will take to remove the unauthorized nonprofit pages, prevent further harm, and rebuild trust with nonprofits,” she said in a statement. “We welcome this step by GoFundMe and the speed with which they took corrective action.”

Alex Szebenyi, co-founder of the nonprofit Acquaint, spoke to the Chronicle before the policy change, saying he felt “a good apology would help; I think a lot of people could forgive them, but maybe not forget it immediately.”

After the company apologized, Szebenyi said he was “really glad to see GoFundMe moving to an opt-in model that finally respects nonprofit consent.”

Before the company announced the changes, Mark Dobosz, vice president of philanthropy, major gifts, and planned giving at Mozaic Senior Life, told the Chronicle that he was frustrated that GoFundMe was creating extra work for him because he would have to claim and remove pages that didn’t align with his organization’s fundraising plan. After learning of the course shift, he’s grateful.

“It is a welcome sign and action that they are admitting the error of their ways and taking the steps to correct it so nonprofits can continue to focus on their missions instead of needless distractions,” said Dobosz, who is prepping for a gala for his organization.

Szebenyi hopes other companies will take notice. “In the long run, I think this shift will help rebuild trust and set a strong precedent for others in the industry: that platforms shouldn’t capitalize on the work nonprofits do without their explicit permission.”

What Does This Mean for Your Page?

For nonprofits that have GoFundMe pages they don’t want and haven’t claimed, the company says to sit tight and wait for them to de-index through GoFundMe’s process. GoFundMe says it will remove pages on its end and expects the de-indexing “to happen within a few days,” noting it doesn’t control how quickly search engines remove indexed pages.

George Weiner, founder of the marketing company Whole Whale, says that how long that takes can vary based on how often search engines update their webpage crawls. Weiner, whose own nonprofit had an unwanted GoFundMe page, said he wouldn’t be surprised if it took two to four weeks for sites to disappear from search and thought it could take even longer.

The Chronicle asked GoFundMe what organizations should do if they want to remove their pages but haven’t finished the claims process. There are two options. They can wait for the claims process to finish and remove the page using the dashboard available to claimed pages. Or if they want to halt the claims process and remove the page, they should contact company representatives at support.gofundme.com.

While GoFundMe is eliminating the unwanted nonprofit pages, it will continue to offer “basic nonprofit directory listings so nonprofits are discoverable and organizers can create fundraisers to support nonprofits,” according to Cadogan’s statement.