More Than 500K People Helped GoFundMe Set Single-Day Giving Record After George Floyd’s Death Credit: Courtesy GoFundMe
The Manitowoc/Two Rivers area has truly shown its giving nature over the past several months.
After the disappearance of Elijah Vue in February and Jason and Tina Prigge being involved in a motorcycle crash, hundreds, if not thousands, of people, donated their time, talent, and money to help those directly impacted by the incidents.
However, anytime a scammer sees an opportunity to get people’s money, they will take it.
We reached out to Angelique McNaughton, the Communications Manager with GoFundMe, to see how they ensure all fundraisers on their platform are on the up and up.
“Being a safe and trusted place to give and receive help is our top priority,” she explained. “For our team to verify a fundraiser to us, it must be clear who the person is that they’re raising funds for how those funds will be used, what their relationship is to that person that’s raising funds. And before any of that money is actually released, we need to verify their personal information.”
There was actually a situation where a phony page was created shortly after Elijah’s disappearance, which McNaughton tells us was addressed very quickly.
“A fundraiser that was not authorized by the family was created and our team quickly removed it from the website before it raised any funds,” she noted.
While the GoFundMe team is dedicated to ensuring all fundraisers are legitimate, sometimes, on very rare occasions, something may slip through the cracks.
However, McNaughton explained, “In the rare case that something does go wrong, we guarantee donors a full refund of any amount up to one full year after that donation is made.”
McNaughton also praised the community for their amazing support of the Prigges.
“More than $220,000 has been raised on GoFundMe for that couple,” she said. “Moments like this is why GoFundMe exists.”
You can learn more about how GoFundMe is ensuring their platform is not being used for bad deeds by visiting the Giving Guarantee section of GoFundMe.com.
