Recent update 10/21/2025: GoFundMe announced they were removing logos and the suggested tip from pages
Recent update 10/23/2025: GoFundMe announced that pages will be opt-in and SEO will be default off
Gofundme Nonprofit Page Details (& how to remove)
In late 2025, ABC7 reported that GoFundMe, parent company of Classy, quietly created 1.4 million donation pages for U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofits — without asking them first.
The platform used publicly available IRS data and partner feeds (such as PayPal Giving Fund) to auto-generate fundraising pages that look official but, in many cases, were never authorized or even known to the nonprofits themselves.
(ABC7 News report)
What Actually Happened
- Auto-created nonprofit pages: GoFundMe used public records to build out donation pages for every active charity in the U.S. The idea was to make it “easier for donors to give” — but thousands of nonprofits discovered they already had GoFundMe pages they’d never touched.
- No direct outreach: Several Bay Area nonprofits quoted by ABC7 said they were never notified. They only learned about the pages after stumbling across them online.
- No control: Unclaimed pages mean no branding control, no access to donor data, and no stewardship opportunities for the nonprofit that’s supposedly benefiting.
- On October 17th, 2025, digital fundraising agency Whole Whale had several clients reach out in complete confusion as to how these pages were created.
These GoFundMe shadow donation pages are creating a huge SEO mess as they compete for visibility with official charity donation pages. Plus it is causing confusion for donation searches around nonprofits with similar names.
George Weiner, Chief Whaler, WholeWhale.com
SEO Side-Effects: 1.4 Million New “Donation Pages”
Every auto-generated GoFundMe listing becomes a search-optimized landing page with the nonprofit’s name in the URL and metadata. That flood of content adds up to millions of SEO-ranked pages competing directly with real nonprofit websites.
Note that GoFundMe has announced on 10/23/2025 that they will be removing these pages from search results.
The result:
- Donors searching “<Nonprofit Name> donate” might land on GoFundMe instead of the organization’s actual giving page.
- Those diversions can dilute trust, distort analytics, and redirect donor intent.
- In aggregate, it shifts a significant slice of donor discovery traffic from charities’ owned domains to GoFundMe’s platform.
Fees, Tips, and Recurring Donation Defaults
GoFundMe’s giving structure isn’t purely altruistic. Here’s what donors (and nonprofits) are dealing with:
| Category | GoFundMe Default | Typical Nonprofit Platform Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Base transaction fee | ~2.2% + $0.30 per donation | 2.0–2.9% + $0.30 industry standard |
| Platform “tip” to GoFundMe | Default around 15–17%, donors must manually reduce it | Most nonprofit forms do not pre-set a tip; donor-covers-fees options average 0–10%, and are optional |
| Recurring-gift platform fee | 5% additional fee applied to each monthly donation | Nearly all benchmarked platforms (Classy, Givebutter, Donorbox, etc.) charge no recurring-specific premium, only standard processing |
| Average recurring donation size | $25–$35/month (industry benchmark) | N/A — shown for context |
Sources: ABC7 News (2025), GoFundMe Help Center, Dataro Recurring Giving Benchmark (2024), Click & Pledge, and Donorbox Fee Disclosure Data.
These defaults matter because defaults drive behavior. Most donors won’t manually edit the 16% tip box or read the fine print about recurring fees.
That passive friction translates into real revenue for GoFundMe — revenue that the nonprofits never opted into sharing.
The Classy Connection
GoFundMe owns Classy, a permission-based fundraising platform widely used by established nonprofits.
On Classy, nonprofits choose to create branded campaigns, manage donor data, and decide whether to pass processing costs to donors.
That makes the current GoFundMe rollout even more puzzling: one arm of the company operates with nonprofit consent and transparency; the other auto-generates donation pages for the same sector without notice.
In this example, it appears that case study clients of GoFundMePRO also had shadow pages created in October that competed with paying nonprofit pages.
Why It Matters
- Consent & Control – Nonprofits never agreed to represent themselves on GoFundMe, yet their brands are effectively monetized.
- Donor Confusion – Well-meaning donors may believe they’re giving directly to a nonprofit when they’re really supporting an intermediary.
- Search Displacement – Auto-generated SEO pages siphon traffic away from verified donation portals.
- Fee Opacity – Hidden or default tips blur transparency and inflate donor costs.
- No Refunds or Transaction fee coverage option: GoFundMe doesn’t allow for basic donor features like refunds or ability for donor to cover the cost of the transaction, though they make it easy to leave a generous tip to the platform.
- Regulatory Risk – Some states, like California, now classify such behavior under charitable-solicitation laws that require registration and disclosures.
Snapshot from https://prosupport.gofundme.com/hc/en-us/articles/37288767138075-Nonprofit-Pages-on-GoFundMeGoFundMe Support page – Taken 10/17/2025 before GoFundMe announced the removal of these page from indexing.
The Bigger Picture
The GoFundMe model highlights a creeping trend: platforms quietly embedding themselves between donors and causes.
Whether you call it innovation or overreach depends on how much you value frictionless giving versus nonprofit autonomy.
But the facts are plain:
- 1.4 million pages created without consent.
- Double-digit default tips.
- A 5% recurring-donation surcharge.
- Millions of SEO pages now standing between donors and the organizations they think they’re helping.
That’s not just automation — that’s appropriation at scale.
Note: GoFundMe has updated their approach on nonprofit page visibility and the suggested tip as of 10/23/2025.
How to Remove Your Nonprofit from GoFundMe’s Unsolicited Pages
If you’ve discovered a GoFundMe (or Classy-connected) page using your nonprofit’s name without consent, here’s how to reclaim or remove it. Here is the take-down instructions from GoFundMe.
Disclaimer: This is not legal advice and should be reviewed.
1. Claim and Control Your Page (Contain the Damage)
The fastest way to stop impersonation is to claim your page through GoFundMe’s nonprofit portal:
https://www.gofundme.com/charity/claim/search
Note that doing this means you are also opting into their terms of service.
- Search for your organization by name or EIN.
- Verify your identity and connect your official email or banking details.
- Wait 2 days and once verified, you can edit branding, messaging, and disable public fundraising if you wish.
Why it matters: claiming prevents donor confusion and locks the page to your organization’s admin account.
2. Request Formal Removal
If you don’t want your nonprofit listed at all the official removal requires nonprofits to go through the online validation flow, there is no public form for this as of 10/20/2025.
Official Support Page
If you don’t want to go through their internal signup validation flow, you can try submitting a takedown notice request:
Data Removal Form:
https://preferences.gofundme.com/
OR
Official Data and privacy emails:
privacy-requests@gofundme.com
dpo@gofundme.com
- Submit a takedown request over email
- Include:
- Your full legal nonprofit name and EIN
- Statement of authorization (that you represent the org)
- URLs of the unauthorized pages
- A direct request to remove, delist, and de-index all pages using your name
- Use key phrases such as “unauthorized charitable solicitation” and “brand misuse.”
- If you’re in California, cite California Government Code §12599.9 — it requires fundraising platforms to verify charities before listing them.
3. Escalate if Ignored
If your removal request goes unanswered, file formal complaints:
- State Attorney General – Most states (CA, NY, IL, WA, etc.) have a Charitable Trusts or Solicitation Unit that oversees unauthorized fundraising.
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) – File under Deceptive Practices in Charitable Solicitations at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
- Include screenshots showing donor confusion, default tip screens, or search results where GoFundMe outranks your site.
TL;DR
- Claim it → get control.
- Request deletion → clean it up.
- Escalate → involve regulators if needed.
*This is not legal advice*
