Donation platform GoFundMe is rolling out what it says is the “largest update” since its founding in 2010. The changes include a revamped fundraiser management dashboard that can coach users through campaigns, a partnership with hyperlocal social networking service Nextdoor to share fundraisers with people in nearby areas, and an option to upload a video clip for solicitations (vs. text-based requests).
“What we’re trying to do is strengthen,” chief product and technology officer J Allard tells Fast Company. “We want to strengthen the connections between those in need, the campaign organizers, and their communities, and we want to strengthen communities as well.”
More than $25 billion has been raised by individuals and nonprofits since 2010 across GoFundMe and Classy, the nonprofit fundraiser platform it acquired last year, according to a company spokesperson.
The option to upload video, in particular, can prove especially useful to people who feel more comfortable speaking than they do writing. It could also bring some more humanity to a user’s campaign, according to Allard, who recently joined GoFundMe after nearly 20 years at Microsoft. “In a world of TikTok where there’s editing and green screening and decorations and filters and everything else, this delivers really an authenticity in storytelling,” he says. “They’re not productions; these are real people. And that I think that integrity of the storytelling is part of what makes that emotional connection.”
The partnership with Nextdoor, which boasts 78 million users as of Q4 of 2022 could also greatly expand the reach of a given campaign. A person may not have hundreds of Facebook connections, but they could be living in a very robust community of people who want to help. A person who wants to spread their campaign’s reach could sign up for Nextdoor and immediately connect with other users.
“It really has a lot of that neighbor-to-neighbor engagement,” Allard says. “A lot of the people that are in need don’t necessarily have those well-established social graphs, which is the first key to success with a GoFundMe. . . . I can join Nextdoor and immediately have a community of 1,000s of people local to me.”
GoFundMe is also revamping how users interact with their campaigns and the backend process. Users will be able to send out bulk thank-you messages, instead of sending out notes one by one. That can help out in the case of a crisis organizer, for example, who has received hundreds of donations in a short period of time.
GoFundMe will also utilize the loads of data it has collected to start making recommendations to improve a campaign’s chances for success, like re-sharing links, adding routine updates, or writing longer narratives. People come to GoFundMe in a time of need. “[Users] need to run a campaign, and they’re not getting good guidance,” Allard says. “When somebody comes to us and asks for help, we want to give them the best possible tools.”
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