GoFundMe Wants to Popularize a Philanthropic Tool Favored by the Ultra-Wealthy

The crowdfunding platform is looking to break into an exclusive market by broadening the appeal of donor-advised funds.

Man in black tuxedo stands on red carpet behind red wall
GoFundMe CEO Tim Cadogan described the new tool as one that can boost charitable giving. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for TIME

GoFundMe is setting its sights on a philanthropic product historically favored by the ultra-wealthy as it looks to expand beyond its crowdfunding roots. The fundraising platform’s newest tool is Giving Funds, a spin on donor-advised funds that offers participants a lower barrier to entry and aims to unlock more charitable dollars nationwide.

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Launched today (June 30), Giving Funds is free to use, with no management fees or minimum balance requirements. “We built Giving Funds to give everyone a simple way to manage their charitable giving in one place—without the fees or barriers that once kept donor-advised funds out of reach for most people,” said Tim Cadogan, GoFundMe’s CEO, in a statement.

Donor-advised funds (DAFs) allow individuals to contribute money to a fund, receive an immediate tax deduction, and distribute grants to charities over time.  They are especially favored by the wealthy—2025 survey found that 96 percent of 2,100 DAF users had a net worth exceeding $1 million—and have been criticized by some for their tepid transparency requirements and tax-free benefits.

Currently, only around 1 percent of Americans use DAFs, said Sarah Peck, GoFundMe’s vice president of communications. “Giving Funds offers an easy new way to manage your charitable giving all in one place, and you don’t need to be familiar with the words ‘donor-advised fund’ to start one,” she told Observer in an emailed statement.

Of the more than $250 million held in traditional DAFs, the vast majority of these funds have gone undistributed. GoFundMe says the accessibility of its new tool could help accelerate the currently sluggish pace of charitable grant-making. Giving Funds users have 1.4 million charities available to choose from and can make gifts as low as $5, with the tool functioning effectively as a “personal charitable wallet,” according to GoFundMe.

In order to entice donors to give, GoFundMe will use discovery, recommendation and sharing features to help users find organizations they’re aligned with. The platform will also make it easy to give quickly during crises by surfacing nonprofits aiding in urgent relief.

GoFundMe’s pivot into the nonprofit sector

Founded in 2010, GoFundMe is best known for its crowdfunding campaigns that, in some cases, have become so prevalent that entire industries rely on the platform to cover costs. It’s amassed  more than 200 million users and earlier this year celebrated raising more than $40 billion over the past 15 years.

In recent months the company has attempted to outgrow its roots and expand further into the nonprofit sector. “Charitable giving has hovered around 2 percent of U.S. GDP for decades,” said Cadogan. “We believe that with the right tools, we can help increase that.”

Giving Funds is part of a broader suite of new tools launched by GoFundMe to expand its reach and impact. Over the past year, the company has introduced features such as Profiles, a customizable space for individual users; Live Fundraising, which enables livestreamed donation drives; and GoFundMe Pro, a software solution designed for nonprofits.

With its latest DAF–inspired product, GoFundMe is stepping into a competitive landscape. DAFs—typically managed by community foundations, corporate charitable arms, and increasingly by fintech startups like Daffy—have seen a surge in popularity. In 2023 alone, DAFs distributed approximately $54.7 billion in grants, while total charitable assets held in these funds grew 9.9 percent year-over-year to $251.5 billion, according to a recent report.

GoFundMe is betting that by making DAFs more accessible, it can unlock a market that has historically catered to the wealthy. “Unlike traditional DAFs, Giving Funds are built to make it intentional and easy for anyone to support the causes they care about—and to get more funds out the door to nonprofits that need them,” said Peck.

GoFundMe Wants to Popularize a Philanthropic Tool Favored by the Ultra-Wealthy