GoFundMe was founded in 2010 by Brad Damphousse and Andrew Ballester. Originally called CreateaFund in 2008, the pair changed the name in 2010 after making numerous updates and changes to the site.
The company is a for-profit, crowdfunding platform, where people list a need or want, along with the dollar amount they wish to raise, and others can donate to their cause. Since its inception, the company has raised more than $5 billion for more than 2 million campaigns.
One of the stars of the television show Gilligan’s Island, Dawn Wells, recently accepted nearly $200,000 in a GoFundMe account started in her name to help her pay for medical bills.
GoFundMe originally charged a 5% fee, taken from the money donated, however, in 2017, the company said that it will now accept donations or “tips” from people who are donating, so the recipient can receive the entire amount.
Although medical problems top the GoFundMe list, due to the coronavirus crisis and quarantine, there have been multiple requests ranging from an ice cream shop employee in Mashpee, Massachusetts, who quit after being verbally abused by customers upset by a long wait, to a Utah mother who lost her daughters in a flash flood, to a Dallas hair salon owner who was jailed for not respecting the quarantine.
In January 2022, a group called Freedom Convoy 2022, collected funds to protest Canada’s requirement of vaccination against Covid for cross-border truck drivers. The company shut down the account, which had reached $10 million in donations, saying that it was not a verified charity and that GoFundMe would refund all donations within 10 days.
GoFundMe was founded in San Diego, later noting a PO Box in Redwood City, California, only as their “corporate office address.” 
GoFundMe was founded in 2010 by Brad Damphousse and Andrew Ballester. Originally called CreateaFund in 2008, the pair changed the name in 2010 after making numerous updates and changes to the site.
The company is a for-profit, crowdfunding platform, where people list a need or want, along with the dollar amount they wish to raise, and others can donate to their cause. Since its inception, the company has raised more than $5 billion for more than 2 million campaigns.
History
One of the stars of the television show Gilligan’s Island, Dawn Wells, recently accepted nearly $200,000 in a GoFundMe account started in her name to help her pay for medical bills.
GoFundMe originally charged a 5% fee, taken from the money donated, however, in 2017, the company said that it will now accept donations or “tips” from people who are donating, so the recipient can receive the entire amount.
Although medical problems top the GoFundMe list, due to the coronavirus crisis and quarantine, there have been multiple requests ranging from an ice cream shop employee in Mashpee, Massachusetts, who quit after being verbally abused by customers upset by a long wait, to a Utah mother who lost her daughters in a flash flood, to a Dallas hair salon owner who was jailed for not respecting the quarantine.
In January 2022, a group called Freedom Convoy 2022, collected funds to protest Canada’s requirement of vaccination against Covid for cross-border truck drivers. The company shut down the account, which had reached $10 million in donations, saying that it was not a verified charity and that GoFundMe would refund all donations within 10 days.
GoFundMe was founded in San Diego, later noting a PO Box in Redwood City, California, only as their “corporate office address.”
