GoFundMe

GoFundMe
Industry	Crowdfunding and online fundraising platform
Country	United States
Founded	2010
Headquarters	San Diego, California, United States
Parent company
Status	Active
Verification	Verified Verification status: Verified

Overview

GoFundMe is a U.S.-based online crowdfunding platform that hosts personal, charitable, and organizational fundraising campaigns. The company positions itself as a neutral intermediary while maintaining a Trust & Safety enforcement framework governing acceptable use of the platform, including restrictions related to violence, criminal activity, and legal-defense fundraising.

Public reporting confirms that GoFundMe actively moderates and removes campaigns it determines to violate its Terms of Service, including campaigns connected to violent acts, hate crimes, or criminal wrongdoing. However, enforcement has been shown to be inconsistent and discretionary, particularly in cases involving law enforcement or state actors.

Alternatives

ICE List recognises that crowdfunding platforms are a practical necessity for individuals, mutual-aid efforts, journalists, and civil-society organisations. The boycott of GoFundMe is not a rejection of crowdfunding itself, but of selective enforcement practices that materially enable ICE-related violence while asserting neutrality.

The following platforms and approaches are commonly used as alternatives to GoFundMe:

• Donorbox: An online donation and fundraising platform widely used by non-profits, advocacy organisations, and independent projects. Donorbox enables direct donations and campaign-style fundraising embedded on organisations’ own websites.

• Givebutter: A fundraising and crowdfunding platform offering campaign-based fundraising, peer-to-peer tools, and donor engagement features. Givebutter is frequently cited in platform comparisons as a functional alternative to GoFundMe.

• Open Collective: A funding platform designed for collectives, community projects, and ongoing initiatives, with a focus on financial transparency. Budgets, expenses, and withdrawals are publicly visible by default.

• Fundly: A general-purpose crowdfunding platform that supports personal and charitable fundraising campaigns. Fundly is commonly listed in third-party comparisons of GoFundMe alternatives.

• Mightycause: A fundraising platform primarily used by nonprofits and community organisations, offering campaign pages, peer-to-peer fundraising, and donor management tools.

• Chuffed: A crowdfunding platform focused on social-impact, community, and cause-based fundraising, used internationally for charitable and advocacy campaigns.

• Ko-fi: A platform enabling individuals and creators to receive small donations and recurring support directly from donors, without campaign-style crowdfunding structures.

• Direct donations (Stripe, PayPal, bank transfer): Some organisations and individuals choose to bypass crowdfunding platforms entirely by accepting donations directly through payment processors or bank transfers, removing discretionary platform moderation from the fundraising process.

Inclusion of alternatives is intended to reduce harm to people who rely on crowdfunding while maintaining accountability for platform conduct.

Boycott

GoFundMe is listed for boycott due to its documented failure to enforce its own policies in relation to fundraising connected to state violence and ICE operations, including:

• Hosting fundraisers benefiting an ICE agent involved in a fatal shooting: GoFundMe has continued to host and facilitate fundraising campaigns raising substantial sums of money for ICE agent Jonathan Ross following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, despite widespread public reporting, scrutiny, and direct comparison to prior campaigns removed under similar circumstances.

• Contradiction of stated platform policies: GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit fundraising that supports individuals responsible for violent wrongdoing or that raises funds for legal defense in connection with violent acts. Despite this, the platform has allowed multiple campaigns connected to the Ross shooting to remain live while stating publicly that they are “under review.”

• Selective and delayed enforcement: GoFundMe has acknowledged awareness of the campaigns and confirmed they are being reviewed by Trust & Safety teams, yet has not removed them, even as funds continue to be collected. This mirrors a documented pattern in which enforcement action is delayed or withheld in cases involving law enforcement actors, while similar campaigns involving non-state actors are removed more rapidly.

Because GoFundMe’s continued hosting of these fundraisers materially enables financial support connected to ICE violence while asserting neutrality and compliance, ICE List documents GoFundMe as a boycott-listed company.

Background

GoFundMe’s moderation framework has previously been used to remove or freeze campaigns connected to violent incidents, including shootings and politically motivated attacks. In this case, however, GoFundMe has cited the absence of formal criminal charges while allowing fundraising to continue, despite the platform’s own policies focusing on conduct rather than prosecutorial status.

The disparity between GoFundMe’s written policies and its operational decisions has been highlighted by journalists, digital-rights advocates, and civil-rights organizations, raising concerns about selective enforcement and reputational shielding of state actors.