Overview
Launched in May 2010 and based in San Diego, CA, GoFundMe has quickly become the #1 crowdfunding website in the world for personal causes and life-events. Hundreds of thousands of people have raised tens of millions of dollars for the things that matter to them most. GoFundMe users can choose to create a) Personal Donation Campaigns, b) Charity Fundraising Campaigns or c) All-or-Nothing Crowdfunding Campaigns.
The service operates in the U.S., Canada, Australia, The U.K. and in E.U. countries that use the Euro as their currency. Having received no outside capital or investment, GoFundMe answers only to its users! GoFundMe charges a 5% fee on all transactions. Unlike other sites, we do not increase our fee on campaigns that fail to reach their goal.
History
In 2008 Brad Damphousse wanted to save up for a vacation. Frustrated that savings accounts were so difficult to open online, he decided that a web-based 'social' savings account - one that allowed others to make deposits - would be more fun. That idea sparked the journey that would eventually result in one of the world's most successful crowdfunding platforms.
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After his ‘ah-ha moment’ Brad called his best buddy and talented programmer Andy Ballester to see if he would be interested. Like any good friend, Andy immediately quit his job and began helping Brad develop this big idea. Through a couple of twists and turns, the two decided that they would build an online fundraising service that would allow regular people to raise money online for just about anything - something later to be known as ‘crowdfunding’.
Fast forward 18 months and the two found themselves trying to get their fledgling startup off of the ground. Out of necessity, their service had evolved into a subscription-based fundraising service for small charities. However, the majority of their users remained regular people raising money for personal causes and life events. The users’ stories were amazing - always inspiring and uplifting - which helped to fuel the founders’ passion to improve their service.
Luckily for Brad & Andy some very exciting developments were happening in the world of online payments - making it easier than ever for individuals to accept credit/debit card payments online. This was the breakthrough needed to bring crowdfunding to the masses!
Reinvigorated, Brad & Andy set out to re-launch the product of their dreams, GoFundMe.
On May 10, 2010 Brad Damphousse & Andrew Ballester introduced GoFundMe to the world. The response was very positive, but not quite the overwhelming surge of usage every hopeful founder expects. Again, it was GoFundMe’s community of users and their incredible stories of love, support and adventure that drove the founders to continuously make improvements.
The next two years can be summarized as one product iteration after another. Day-in and day-out, Brad & Andy dedicated their time to making improvements to the site. Since the guys did all of their own customer support, they listened to users directly and prioritized their tasks based on the feedback they received.
In February 2012 GoFundMe celebrated $1M raised in a single month. By November 2012 the payment volume nearly surpassed $5M per month. The total payment volume raised in 2012 was 500% more than in 2011. After four years of hard work, GoFundMe was turning into an ‘overnight’ success story - making it the #1 crowdfunding site for personal causes and life events. Along the way, an exceptional group of software developers and customer service agents were added to the growing team.
Today, people from all over the world count on GoFundMe for the best crowdfunding experience available. The site is regularly applauded for its ease-of-use and unprecedented customer service response times. The GoFundMe team takes great pride in ensuring success for even the most novice of users. Crowdfunding is quickly becoming a part of everyday life and GoFundMe is proud to offer the perfect fundraising solution for any campaign imaginable.