It goes to Paypal Giving Fund (another 501c3) and then Paypal Giving Fund sends the money to the nonprofit, or if there's a problem sending it to them then "PayPal Giving Fund will (whenever possible) ask you to recommend another, and grant the funds to a similar charity if you don’t respond"
Sure but that is expensive and will likely just get a page taken down. Most nonprofits are barely surviving and not able to spend on lawyers just to make a point.
But press coverage and public outrage is free, and many nonprofits are good at one or both.
I looked up charities I support and it looks like GoFundMe is pulling in the logos of some orgs. Assuming those are trademarked, that would be a pretty simple takedown letter to send.
You’d potentially recover misdirected funding and catch the attention of an attorney general.
You’d also likely get access to a list of duped donors who would have standing to write fraud complaint letters to their respective state attorneys general.
Yeah, given the number affected a class action might be the way to go. It will take time but lawyers will eat the costs in exchange for a significant cut of the final payout.
Don't IRS Form 990s (for nonprofits) contain an address? Where GoFundMe could proactively send a check upon receiving a donation rather than keeping it until contacted?
(Answer: yes)
So GoFundMe uses info from the public accountability mechanisms when it suits them to collect money, but not when to pass money to donor-desired recipients helping the actual charities?
"Disaster Capitalism" strikes again. Everything is configured optimally for creating chaos and protecting profit extraction, at any cost. Legal system? Good luck with that. We are near that stage if not in it already...
Entire article doesn't answer first question that comes to mind: where does the donation money go to?
It goes to Paypal Giving Fund (another 501c3) and then Paypal Giving Fund sends the money to the nonprofit, or if there's a problem sending it to them then "PayPal Giving Fund will (whenever possible) ask you to recommend another, and grant the funds to a similar charity if you don’t respond"
Can’t the nonprofits sue gofundme?
Sure but that is expensive and will likely just get a page taken down. Most nonprofits are barely surviving and not able to spend on lawyers just to make a point.
But press coverage and public outrage is free, and many nonprofits are good at one or both.
I looked up charities I support and it looks like GoFundMe is pulling in the logos of some orgs. Assuming those are trademarked, that would be a pretty simple takedown letter to send.
> will likely just get a page taken down
You’d potentially recover misdirected funding and catch the attention of an attorney general.
You’d also likely get access to a list of duped donors who would have standing to write fraud complaint letters to their respective state attorneys general.
Yeah, given the number affected a class action might be the way to go. It will take time but lawyers will eat the costs in exchange for a significant cut of the final payout.
Reminds of GrubHub and Doordash doing similar a number of years ago: creating listings/pages for restaurants without their knowledge.
Grubhub sued for listing restaurants without permission (2020)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24930436
Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage (2020)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23216852
Don't IRS Form 990s (for nonprofits) contain an address? Where GoFundMe could proactively send a check upon receiving a donation rather than keeping it until contacted?
(Answer: yes)
So GoFundMe uses info from the public accountability mechanisms when it suits them to collect money, but not when to pass money to donor-desired recipients helping the actual charities?
Slimy.
Isn't this basically the same thing that Benevity has been doing since forever? Except for the "tip", which I guess is kind of scummy.
"Disaster Capitalism" strikes again. Everything is configured optimally for creating chaos and protecting profit extraction, at any cost. Legal system? Good luck with that. We are near that stage if not in it already...
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