Friday evening GoFundMe has decided to shut down the fundraiser set up to provide money to the Freedom Convoy in Canada. The funding would go towards a group of truckers, farmers, and others protesting draconian Covid-19 mitigation measures.
GoFundMe claims they took this action due to the threats of violence and harassment. However, they did not provide any valid evidence to back up these claims. In fact, the only violence that seems to have occurred was someone running over some of the Freedom Convoy participants in what is still a developing story being reported on.
Even worse, GoFundMe announced that it will only offer manual refunds, and that the unclaimed money would go to “approved” charities. Certainly this seems fishy and reeks of them pocketing the extra funds.
That means that thousands of people will have their money being sent to charities they never approved. Wouldn’t this be considered stealing people’s money and infringing upon their rights to donate?
Now, after a pressure campaign, including threats by donors to use credit-card charge-backs (which could have cost the crowd-funding site a hefty processing fee on each transaction), GoFundMe has backed down. They have put out a statement saying they will process the refunds automatically.
GoFundMe’s statement on Twitter read, “The update we issued earlier enabled all donors to get a refund and outlined a plan to distribute remaining funds to verified charities selected by the Freedom Convoy organizers. However, due to donor feedback, we are simplifying the process and automatically refunding donations.”
It just seems like they are trying to backtrack and talk themselves out of a corner they placed themselves into. This is a company that has continually allowed fundraising for left-wing causes, including violent ones such as the BLM riots of 2020 and the CHOP/CHAZ in Seattle. Further, they went so far as to advertise for those causes on GoFundMe’s official Twitter account. The company also sought to smear Gov. Ron DeSantis by encouraging people to give to scam-artist Rebekah Jones‘ fundraiser.
In all honesty, GoFundMe is run by left-wing political hacks. They have continually shut down fundraisers with any connection to the “right,” while allowing all manner of insanity from the left. Black Lives Matter is a scam organization, yet GoFundMe never once shut down their fundraisers — even as cities burned in 2020 during BLM-organized protests.
Personally it’s nice to want to give and help out others, but I think there are way better avenues than using the GoFundMe platform. This company has shown its true colors. It operates in bad faith and even goes as far as misappropriating donated funds for political reasons. GoFundMe backing down on that point is not enough to apologize for their misgivings and misguided directions. There are other ways to raise funds for worthy causes, and they should be used. If GoFundMe wants to operate as a left-wing enforcer, it can do so while only getting money from the left.
I will never donate to a gofundme again.
Shame on GFM! (Should be called GoFu&%*kMe) I have donated to causes through them in the past, but will no longer trust them to distribute my money to my chosen cause. I’m sure many others now feel this way. That is a shame because there are many out there that need help from others at times. Hell will be hot for this organization.
Personally I feel that GoFundMe should be shut down and any outstanding funds remaining undistributed to requested purposes, should be immediately processed and refunded. Furthermore, it should also refund immediately, to donors and/or people who started any account that has been issued to ANY organizations other than the designated person/person and any funds GoFundMe has collected for accounts that they took fees they put on their customers, i.e., people who have to pay a fee to GoFundMe for using the site and it’s purpose. There should also be a penalty against GoFundMe, for the inconvenience for anyone who needed those funds collected for their purpose of need. I am tired of all these companies screwing people and getting away with it, only to continue getting away with their behavior.