Unauthorized Nonprofit Pages on GoFundMe - Take Action to Protect Your Reputation

Updated 10/31/25

Recently, GoFundMe - the crowdfunding platform - created on its website donation pages for 1.4 million nonprofit organizations without their knowledge or consent, including hundreds of organizations in Maine.

How to Claim or Remove an Unauthorized Page

Why is this a Problem?

Many nonprofits simply do not know about GoFundMe's actions, which may harm their current and future fundraising efforts, damage brand reputations, and cause confusion. Ultimately, this initiative threatens to undermine public trust in nonprofits, which is the foundation that allows nonprofits to do their vital work in communities every day.

Significant concerns include:

Lack of Consent

Nonprofits were not informed of these donation pages, nor were they given the opportunity to consent to any formal relationship with GoFundMe. Nonprofits must have the power and agency to decide for themselves how and when to engage with third parties, particularly on issues as important and sensitive as donation solicitation.

Confusion for Funders and Supporters 

The GoFundMe pages have created confusion for donors and supporters who are unsure of the legitimacy of the fundraising pages. In some cases, GoFundMe included incorrect information, outdated logos, and other inaccuracies that compromise and misrepresent nonprofits' brand, mission, strategy, and message.

Fees and Other Expenses

Donations made through the GoFundMe pages are charged processing fees that cut into the support provided to nonprofits, and donors are asked to provide a generous tip to support GoFundMe's efforts. These tactics ultimately result in fewer resources for nonprofits than if donors contributed directly through the organization.

SEO Optimization 

GoFundMe has initiated SEO optimization as the default for the donation pages to improve their visibility when individuals search for information about nonprofits online. This could result in GoFundMe's pages ranking higher than the nonprofit's own website, pulling away potential donors and supporters.

Implementation Challenges 

Without adequate safeguards in place, nonprofits report serious issues, ranging from unauthorized individuals claiming donations and the inability to remove pages without first agreeing to GoFundMe's terms and conditions or sharing sensitive banking information.

Immediate Action for Nonprofits

In response to advocacy by National Council of Nonprofits (NCN) and others, GoFundMe has agreed to remove and de-index all unauthorized donation pages so that they no longer appear on its website or in online searches, and it changed the default so that authorized pages do not automatically have SEO optimization. Going forward, GoFundMe will provide nonprofits with the choice about whether to participate and greater control over their messaging.

• If a nonprofit wishes to create a Nonprofit Page on GoFundMe, read their easy-to-use guide, which includes an FAQ.
• If a nonprofit wishes to remove their existing Nonprofit Page from GoFundMe, disable the “published on GoFundMe” option under the display settings on the Nonprofit Page settings.
• Similarly, a nonprofit can enable or disable SEO in their display settings, which will give them control over where their Nonprofit Page shows up in search engines.
• Contact GoFundMe’s support team at support.gofundme.com.
• Report any continued issues to NCN by contacting Senior Vice President Sarah Saadian at ssaadian@councilofnonprofits.org. NCN will escalate these issues to GoFundMe for resolution.