A group of 21 attorneys general and charitable regulators, led by Attorney General Ellison, has sent a letter to GoFundMe following reports that the company created unauthorized donation web pages for charities without their consent. The coalition is asking GoFundMe to provide evidence within 14 days that all such imposter pages have been removed.
“GoFundMe has quickly become one of the most recognizable names in the online charitable giving space, which is why their practice of creating imposter web sites is so concerning,” said Attorney General Ellison. “I’m particularly troubled by GoFundMe’s apparent pattern of attempting to intercept donations meant for other charities by creating pages to fundraise on behalf of other charities, often without their knowledge or consent, then working to get search engines to list GoFundMe’s fundraising pages above the official fundraising campaigns hosted by those charities. More troubling still is that GoFundMe may be taking a 16.5% cut of those donations made on GoFundMe but meant for other charities. This conduct is completely unacceptable, so I’m teaming up with a bipartisan coalition of other attorneys general and charity regulators to demand answers.”
GoFundMe operates as an internet platform where individuals can raise funds for various causes, including charitable organizations. The company is registered as a charitable fundraising platform in California and Delaware. According to the coalition’s letter, more than 1.4 million imposter donation pages were created without the affected charities’ prior knowledge or approval. These pages reportedly included incorrect information about the organizations and misleading statements regarding donations.
The letter from the attorneys general cites possible violations of state laws related to charitable solicitation and consumer protection. It calls on GoFundMe to take immediate corrective action.
Attorney General Ellison was joined in this effort by officials from Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
