Since GoFundMe crowdfunding campaigns were first launched in 2010, they have generated $30 billion, with 150 million people using the platform to either send or receive money to date, the Associated Press reports.

The company annually updates the total amount raised on the platform since its founding, and the figure has climbed significantly since 2019, when a total of $9 billion in cumulative gifts was reported. Part of that growth includes the company’s 2022 acquisition of Classy, an online platform that facilitates giving to nonprofit organizations. GoFundMe’s CEO, Tim Cadogan, said the most common donation on the platform is $50, and for the most part, campaigns reach the personal networks of those who start them, though certain campaigns draw a broader audience, such as an outpouring of more than $9 million last year as people donated to Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s toy drive after he collapsed on live television during a game and had to be resuscitated. In comparison, charitable giving to U.S. nonprofit organizations reached $499.3 billion in 2022.

According to a 2021 report by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Gen Z and millennial donors, those who are not married, and those who are less religious are more likely to give through crowdfunding than to traditional nonprofits. Despite rising influence of the format, it’s not yet clear how much giving through a crowdfunding campaign has supplanted giving to nonprofit organizations, in part because crowdfunding data is less public. The company does share anonymized data with GivingTuesday, and in 2023, initial estimates showed a 10 percent drop in the number of donors. Other crowdfunding platforms include DonorsChoose, which enables public school teachers to fundraise for classroom supplies; it has helped raise $1.6 billion since 2000. Meta indicated that donors raised more than $7 billion through Facebook and Instagram fundraisers through 2022.

“If it’s true that crowdfunding is becoming a larger part of total giving, I think that their data transparency needs to reflect that, so that we can start to integrate crowdfunding into the larger analysis of charitable giving trends,” said Benjamin Soskis, a senior research associate at the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)