Pennsylvania is joining 20 other states in questioning GoFundMe after new reports say the website created donation pages for more than a million charities without their consent.
23 attorneys general and charitable regulators signed onto a letter that states the company may have violated state charitable solicitation and consumer protection laws.
Pennsylvania AG Dave Sunday and Secretary of Commonwealth Al Schmidt signed that letter.
The letter points to more than 1.4 million charities that GoFundMe made donation web pages for without their knowledge.
It cites “grave concerns” and is demanding action to protect the interests of charities and donors.
The letter states that GoFundMe’s creation of the websites led to:
- Inaccurate charity information, including inaccurate names, logos and social media sites.
- Impression of charity affiliation
- Default tipping: GoFundMe may have applied a default 16.5 percent tip that goes directly to GoFundMe
- Search engine optimization: an allegation that the company used SEO to show up above official fundraising campaigns when people searched a charity online.
GoFundMe issued an apology back in October, and it appears they removed many, if not all, of these web pages while working to get permission.
The letter seeks clarity on those efforts.
Specifically, the AGs are asking GoFundMe to:
- Provide proof that GoFundMe has removed all unauthorized donation web pages.
- Disclose all information that affects a person’s decision to donate, such as to whom donations were made to in lieu of the charities GoFundMe plagiarized.
- Explain how GoFundMe ensured its donation web pages did not display in internet search results above a charity’s official websites or fundraising campaigns.
“GoFundMe provides families and communities with the ability to raise money in times of need, but these many unauthorized postings with solicitations confuse donors, while also harming the charities who did not give consent,” Attorney General Sunday said. “These unauthorized pages can result in donations not reaching the donors’ intended recipients. Full transparency is absolutely necessary on online platforms soliciting and advertising donations.”
Channel 11 reached out to GoFundMe for comment on the letter. In response, a spokesperson said:
“GoFundMe is committed to helping nonprofits reach new donors by making it easier for the millions of people on our platform to discover and support the causes they care about. Nonprofit Pages were created using publicly available information to help people support nonprofit organizations, with donations going to the intended nonprofit.”
Sunday is calling on anyone who believes they were misled to file a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office. That can be done online, over the phone by calling 1-800-441-2555 or by emailing scams@attorneygeneral.gov.
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