“Quite often when you have these tech products, you’re not sure how they will be used when they go out into the world,” Mr Coventry says. The company says it didn’t anticipate it would become the “leader in online medical fundraising”, as it describes itself on its website. “But healthcare is still the largest category of fundraiser in these countries.”Īll of this makes GoFundMe the tech platform nobody should by rights need to use, but tens of thousands of people in desperate need are glad exists. “In places where there is some form of healthcare safety net, people raise funds for expenses like travel to hospitals or staying with relatives, or as a showing of solidarity,” Mr Coventry explained.
There, charity fundraisers have become the last vestige of hope for Americans who don’t have medical insurance and can’t afford out-of-reach price tags on healthcare. There will likely be one key difference in how the platform is used in Europe compared to the US. The company, now “huge” in its native US, is eyeing further expansion in Europe in 2019 as the concept of “social fundraising” is more readily accepted by a wider pool of people. “At first, there is scepticism about giving money directly to a person rather than to an organisation, but then it becomes more commonplace,” he said. Mr Coventry, who joined GoFundMe from in 2017, describes a process that runs from brand recognition to emotional connection to cultural shift. The most common use of funds is to pay for healthcare costs, which are the intended use of one-third of all donations. One notable Irish campaign, set up to support Sean Cox, who suffered life-altering injuries after being attacked outside Anfield in Liverpool before a Champions League match in April 2018, has raised more than €1 million of a €2 million target to pay for his rehabilitation and long-term care. Fundraisers are set up and supported “when someone sees a wrong and they want to right that wrong”, Mr Coventry said. Globally, more than $5 billion (€4.4 billion) has been raised to date through GoFundMe for an eclectic range of causes.
“It comes out top on a lot of our metrics.” “Ireland has been a real success story for fundraising,” Mr Coventry said. Since 2016, more than €30 million has been donated by Irish users of GoFundMe, a figure that looks proportionately high relative to the €200 million-plus donated in the UK via the platform over the same timeframe. Nine years after it was founded in San Diego, California, the world’s biggest crowdfunding platform is enjoying triple-digit growth across Europe.Īlmost one in 10 people in Ireland have used GoFundMe and the number of campaigns set up by people here expanded by 50 per cent in 2018, said John Coventry, its European head of communications.