Community “charity” fundraising company GoFundMe demonstrated they’re woke and fascist at the same time by canceling the Freedom Convoy campaign and promising to send the $9+ million raised to “approved charities.” Now, they’re scrambling to fix the PR nightmare that ensued by moving to refund all donations.
The update we issued earlier enabled all donors to get a refund and outlined a plan to distribute remaining funds to verified charities selected by the Freedom Convoy organizers. However, due to donor feedback, we are simplifying the process and automatically refunding donations.
— GoFundMe (@gofundme) February 5, 2022
The company had hoped that by dropping the news late on a Friday that they’d avoid some of the backlash. But it was quickly seized by conservatives across social media as an example of the totalitarian nature of the left. We didn’t let them oppose freedom without voicing our opinions and pushing to make them feel the pain.
Never start a fundraiser on @gofundme.
Never give to fundraisers on #gofundme.
They are taking $9m donated to selfless truckers and giving it to "credible charities" of their choosing.
If I wanted to donate to a charity, I would have. I gave to truckers.
This is called theft.
— JD Rucker (@JDRucker) February 4, 2022
But maybe it wasn’t just the backlash that got them to change their minds. As Christian competitor GiveSendGo noted on their social accounts, disputing the charges does more pain to the company than simply requesting a refund:
Just in case you missed it-Did you know if you dispute the donation to gfm with your bank/CC they will be charged a $15 dispute fee. They want you to click the refund link because then there will be no fees. What they don't want is 120,000 (amt of donors) $15 fees! Just sayin'
— GiveSendGo (@GiveSendGo) February 5, 2022
The company has their own version of the Trucker Convoy fundraiser. It’s getting so much attention that the site is having intermittent outages, but is approaching $1m raised in just a few hours nonetheless.
Companies that bow to authoritarians in government must be shown that their actions have consequences. GoFundMe opposes freedom. Anyone who does not hate freedom needs to move their fundraisers to GiveSendGo.
