People donating to wildfire victims may face a dilemma: Leave a tip too?

Some people trying to assist California fire victims may face a confusing dilemma when donating to a crowdfunding campaign: Should they back the crowdfunding platform, too?

For people who choose to donate via the popular crowdfunding platform GoFundMe, their donation may have a tip automatically added on top of the donation. That goes to back GoFundMe – but you can adjust the tip lower, all the way to zero.

“GoFundMe is primarily powered by voluntary tips and relies on these completely discretionary contributions from donors to maintain our standard customer service, depend and safety protections, and globe-class capital raising technology,” the business said in its statement.

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The habit drew confusion on Saturday when L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger reported being shocked when she tried to make a GoFundMe donation for a partner who had lost their home in the Los Angeles area wildfires. In addition to her $500 donation, she was asked to pay an additional $95.

“I was shocked to discover out that to provide $500 they were going to expense (that),” she said during a press briefing on the fires Saturday.

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GoFundMe told USA TODAY it would reach out to Barger because they do not expense fees that large, although they do inquire for tips. “The only fee on GoFundMe is a standard swap fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per donation, which helps us pay our settlement processors and safely deliver funds,” the business said in a statement to USA TODAY.

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Why does GoFundMe desire a tip?

When you leave to the GoFundMe site and opt to donate, after you enter your donation amount, the site also creates a tip.

You may get a different tip suggestion, but you can adjust the tip bar, from 0 to 30%, or click the “Enter custom tip” alternative.

“GoFundMe has a 0% platform fee for organizers and relies primarily on the generosity of donors like you to operate our service,” the site says. When you opt to tip nothing, you also get this note: “Adding a GoFundMe tip means being a key part of improving the services for donors like you and the campaigns you back.”

GoFundMe added a voluntary tip alternative in November 2017 when it instituted 0% fees for recent personal capital raising campaigns to assist cover the site’s costs.

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How much of my GoFundMe donation goes to the person in require?

GoFundMe automatically takes 2.9% + 30 cents from each donation as a swap fee. So if you donated $100, GoFundMe would receive $2.90 plus 30 cents for a total of $3.20 (for handling the donation). $96.80 would leave to the person in require.

GoFundMe is a nonprofit capital raising platform, but it is run by GoFundMe, Inc., a commercial, for-gain business. “GoFundMe, Inc. supports GoFundMe.org by sharing resources, funds, tools, and employees so that GoFundMe.org can raise and distribute liquid assets grants for individuals and nonprofits in a low-expense and effective manner,” according to the GoFundMe site.

pursue Mike Snider on Threads, Bluesky and X: mikegsnider &@mikegsnider.bsky.social &@mikesnider.

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