Do you donate to GoFundME? I never have. I am not sure I will in the future. No way to know which is scams or not.
I have only donated through go fund me a very few times. Those times have always been to people or a situation that is local or known to me personally so I know it to be true. I have heard that go fund me keeps a percentage of the money, enough that I don’t want to donate my money that way.
I know that every company has over head and I am fine with a percentage going towards that, though if it gets to be high enough then there are other ways I can help out that stretches my money further. I am not out to keep go fund me in business, I am out to help people in need.
I know a couple of seniors at a 4 year college in CA who set up a Go Fund me for their senior project. My silent response was Go no-way. These kids can’t use their own savings? I happen to know they make great money already working in the industry not to mention they have their own parents. to ask Really? Take. Take. Take. If my kid did that I’d be so embarrassed.
I’m not a big fan of Go Fund Me pages but I have donated a couple of times when it’s been someone I personally knew (tragedy type situations). What I bristle at are the “go fund my vacation” pages. I’ve been personally asked to donate to a bunch of those over the years. Sorry, no.
There will always be predators trying to take advantage of well meaning people. Do these recipients have to pay taxes on this windfall? Some gofundme drives go insanely high.
There seems to be no vetting of these fundraisers.
No taxes. It is not income but a gift, and there aren’t taxes on gifts received.
There was a Go Fund Me for a family with a sudden death of the father. I thought it was very appropriate because he left a wife and 2 very young kids. He had been a teacher and coach, so it allowed people to give very small ($5, $10) and have it added to much bigger gifts. In the end it was a sizable amount.
I did after my friend’s nephew died unexpectedly-- I donated to his family.
When there’s a crisis, I tend to find a church or synagogue to donate to. I can google the town, and “places of worship” and within a few minutes I can find someone accepting donations.
What I find unfortunate is that this will cause many people who might otherwise donate (whether through Go Fund Me or some other mechanism) to help someone who has a legitimate need second-guess doing so out of fear of being taken.
I try to only donate to people I know.
These donations are considered gifts. Gift recipients do not pay taxes on the windfall, but if you give more than $15k to any given person, you will need to report the excess to the IRS for estate tax purposes. 
You may have heard the story about the homeless man who allegedly gave his last 20 dollars to a woman who had run out of gas. As a way of thanks, she and her husband started a GoFundMe for the man. The homeless man subsequently sued the couple, saying he had only received 75K of the over 400K donated. It began to look like the couple had been spending the money themselves, though they hired a lawyer who at first disputed that, saying that they didn’t want to give him too much money at once (something about a drug or drinking problem). Later, he admitted that the account was empty.
NOW it turns out that the homeless man and the couple were all in cahoots, having made up the whole story! At least that is what is now being alleged.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/15/us/couple-homeless-man-gofundme/index.html
That story is in the OP!
But why did the homeless guy protest? Oh that’s right, the are just dumb criminals.
I never saw it coming that the homeless guy was in cahoots! All along, I thought the husband and wife were the villains, so I was duped. Since I didn’t donate, it’s kind of exciting in a true crime sort of way.
D is a musician and SO many of her friends use Kickstarter to raise money to record their music or tour. D wouldn’t ever do that. S has friends in college who used GoFundMe for her Junior Year Abroad. S would never do that, either, but he contributed $20.
My son feels that you shouldn’t do a Kickstarter unless you already have fans who want to help you create something, and you need to give amazing perks to the donors. We did see a guy raise $20,000 for a live theater show, but he had a great idea and a large fan following.
A friend of mine has cancer, and my friends and I chipped in to help her buy a great wig for her chemo. Someone (who didn’t chip in) asked “Why don’t you do a GoFundMe?” None of us could imagine doing that.
Oops! Lol.!!!
It is a good one. Worth repeating.
Unbelievable. It really is.
I only send directly to folks I know who are having financial issues. I have never donated to any “go fund me” campaigns.
This was going to happen sooner or later. So much free money without supervision. Who controls the fund raised? Is it GoFundMe or the person who set it up or the recipient? In theory, I could setup a GoFundMe with a sob story and pocket the money?
@Igloo, apparently so, even though GoFundMe says that they have people working around the clock to make sure each fund is kosher.
I have a young friend working for them on identifying the fraudulent accounts. Very real work. But he describes much worse than this. Eg, nefarious groups masquerading to tug heartstrings.
Please don’t give up based on this. Just know the projects you support are real. Not just that a friend thinks they are. There will likely be scams based on the CA fires.
Btw, his team does work all hours.