Top 20 Crowdfunding Sites – GoFundMe – 4/20

GoFundMe

Headquarters – San Diego, CA

Launched May 10, 2010

GoFundMe is the “hey, can I borrow 50 bucks” of crowdfunding platforms. I see it used mostly for personal emergencies, but you might have seen it used elsewhere. I’ve seen people use it to cover an emergency vet bill, a trip to the dentist, and even for a Kenyan farmer to attend an agricultural conference in Australia. In some cases, I’ve seen people use GoFundMe to raise money to cover uber-high medical bills for terminal illnesses.

GoFundMe is a crowdfunding platform that allows people in some but not all countries to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. The company is based in San Diego, California.

History

The company was founded in May 2010 by Brad Damphousse and Andrew Ballester. Both had previously founded Paygr which is a website dedicated to allowing members to sell their services to the public. Damphousse and Ballester originally created the website under the name “CreateAFund” in 2008 but later changed the name to GoFundMe after making numerous upgrades to the features of the website. In June 2015, it was announced that Damphousse and Ballester had agreed to sell a majority stake in GoFundMe to Accel Partners and to step down from the day-to-day oversight of the company. The deal valued GoFundMe at around $600 million. In January 2017, GoFundMe acquired CrowdRise.