Chamber Taking Steps to Remove Unauthorized GoFundMe Page For Its Foundation

UPDATE 10/23/25: GoFundMe has responded to the controversy, stating that the nonprofit pages they created are now opt-in only. Moving forward, only nonprofits that opt-in to their nonprofit page and complete the verification process will have a public page searchable on GoFundMe. Nonprofit pages for organizations that have not been claimed and verified by those organizations will be removed.
Read more at https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gofundme-pro_at-gofundme-our-mission-has-always-been-activity-7387176830908407808-3AXY/.

~

ORIGINAL POST: The Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce was recently alerted to an unauthorized GoFundMe page for its 501(c)3 nonprofit Foundation. It was found that the Foundation is one of 1.4 million nonprofit organizations from across the country that recently had a fundraising account created for it on GoFundMe without the nonprofits’ knowledge or permission. This GoFundMe page is not affiliated with the Chamber or its Foundation, and we are making efforts to remove it.

According to Craig Bowman, president of Common Ground Consulting, ABC7 San Francisco reported that GoFundMe quietly created 1.4 million donation “placeholder” pages for 501(c)(3) nonprofits using public IRS data and PayPal Giving Fund information— without asking permission.

These pages look official, default to a 16.5% “tip” to GoFundMe, charge a 2.2% transaction fee plus $0.30 per donation and prevent nonprofits from capturing donor data.

The Chamber’s Foundation isn’t the only Sheridan County nonprofit impacted by these new “placeholder” pages. To find out if your organization is listed, visit here: https://www.gofundme.com/s?nonprofits=1…

If your nonprofit is listed, be sure to claim and unpublish the unauthorized page. Inform your board about the risk, and do some research on what the fiscal impact of this unauthorized page is and how much revenue is being diverted from your organization through these unofficial channels.

We appreciate everyone who supports the Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce and our foundation, and we highly value the trust you put in us. If you wish to donate to the Chamber or its foundation, please do so directly and not through unofficial channels. Contact the Chamber at (307) 672-2485 for details.

For more information about the unauthorized GoFundMe pages, visit https://www.linkedin.com/…/when-platforms-violate…/.