![]() The company used to take 5 percent of each donation, but two years ago, when Facebook eliminated some charges for fundraisers, GoFundMe announced that it would do the same and just ask donors for tips. GoFundMe has become the largest crowdfunding platform in the world- 50 million people gave more than $5 billion on the site through 2017, the last year fundraising totals were released. “At the same time, somebody on the other side started a fundraiser for Judge Kavanaugh.” “When Christine Blasey Ford was accusing Judge Kavanaugh of sexual assault, a campaign was raised because she needed security-it raised half a million dollars,” says Robert Solomon, the CEO, who came to GoFundMe from Groupon after Ballester and Damphousse sold their business to an investment team in 2015. People have used GoFundMe to eliminate elementary-school students’ lunch debt, to send the local soccer team to nationals, to replace stolen chickens, to help a stranger attend a bachelor party-and, more and more these days, to get involved with divisive political causes. ![]() Still, the variety on display in this marketplace of need is vast. It currently accounts for one in three campaigns, according to company estimates. Although GoFundMe’s 18 preset donation categories today include education, animals, travel, and community, the most popular has always been medical. They’d help individuals and small groups raise money for personal passions and needs, such as honeymoon trips and graduation gifts-crowdfunding “for life’s important moments,” as the two called it.Īlmost immediately, however, it became apparent that “for life’s desperate moments” would have been an equally appropriate slogan. At the time, Indiegogo and Kickstarter were already crowdfunding projects for artists and entrepreneurs, but Ballester and Damphousse thought they could push the concept much further. S ix years before Matt’s fateful shopping trip, GoFundMe was founded by two young viral-marketing specialists named Brad Damphousse and Andy Ballester. Over the course of three roller-coaster months, 14,076 people contributed $342,106 to Chauncy Black-enough to buy his family a new house. ![]() ![]() Watching the money grow was intoxicating Matt wondered how long the explosion of charity would last. By the end of the night, the fund had doubled, and then it quickly doubled again. Matt called the campaign “Chauncy’s Chance” and set its goal at $250-enough to buy a lawn mower so Chauncy could start a landscaping business. And then someone suggested that Matt start a GoFundMe page for Chauncy. Strangers offered Chauncy’s family furniture, food, and an air conditioner. He was certain he was doing God’s will when his Facebook post began racking up shares and likes. In this chance encounter with a teenager, Matt again felt the stirrings of the Holy Spirit. One morning after a bender, Matt said, he nearly ran his car off the road and, believing he’d been saved by divine intervention, decided to offer his life up to God. He had a day job in the music industry and dealt party drugs at night. In 2008, when Matt was in his early 20s, his father was diagnosed with cancer three months later, he died. He was the son of a successful medical-malpractice attorney and a homemaker. Like Chauncy, Matt was born and raised in Memphis, albeit in a different milieu. As we unpacked the food into their kitchen, you could see the hope coming back into Chauncy’s eyes. “When we got to his house I was truly humbled. Matt drove Chauncy (and the sacks of groceries) home. “All the while we talked and he told me how he makes straight A’s in school and is trying to get a job to help his mom pay rent,” Matt posted on Facebook the next day. Matt White bought Chauncy the donuts-and cereal and peanut butter and toothbrushes and frozen vegetables, too. In exchange for buying him this “dinner,” Chauncy told the guy, he’d carry his groceries. Sometime after 9 p.m., Chauncy filled a box with a dozen donuts and approached a tall white man in his 30s. To hear more feature stories, see our full list or get the Audm iPhone app.
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