ARTICLE
What’s a GoFundMe Tip & Who’s Receiving It?
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Updated - 05/12/2025
In the world of online fundraising, GoFundMe has become a household name for individuals, communities, and nonprofits. While most are familiar with the practice of donating to causes they care about on the platform, less may be aware of the tip feature built into the platform, and even fewer may know why it’s there in the first place.
What is a GoFundMe tip?
To put it simply, a GoFundMe tip is a voluntary additional contribution aimed at covering the platform’s operating costs.
Tipping on GoFundMe is different from the type of tip option you’d see on a nonprofit’s website. Those extra contributions are generally used to cover transactional fees, not operational expenses for the organization as a whole. GoFundMe tips have nothing to do with transactional costs. Those are covered by taking out 2.9% + 30 cents from each donation. Their tips are solely to help support the platform, and, as they put it, “offer powerful and trusted fundraising tools, customer support, and a global team of Trust & Safety experts.”
So, what does tipping actually look like on GoFundMe? Once you’ve entered the “Donate Now” page, you’ll see a sliding scale to adjust the percentage you’d like to tip on top of your donation. It’s important to note that if a donor does not want to tip, they will have to adjust the scale to zero as it’s automatically set to 15%. While tipping is voluntary, donors should be aware that it is an opt-out feature, not an opt-in.
Why does GoFundMe want people to tip?
GoFundMe introduced the tipping model back in 2017 so they could make the platform “free for people who start a fundraiser.”
But GoFundMe was around years before 2017, so why the sudden change? Before that point, GoFundMe charged their fundraisers a 5% platform fee to set up their campaign. Now, by asking donors for tips, GoFundMe is free for anyone to start a fundraiser. It’s important to remember that GoFundMe is a for-profit organization, so the tipping model most likely wouldn’t have been introduced if it wasn’t deemed to be a better business model than the 5% fee.
So, exactly how much money does GoFundMe make from donations? If you were to tip $100, GoFundMe would take $2.90 plus 30 cents for a total of $3.20. Meaning $96.80 would go to the fundraiser. If you donate $5,000 they’d be taking $145.30, leaving the fundraiser with $4,854.70. Now, let’s say you don’t opt-out of the automatic 15% tip. For the $5,000 donation, GoFundMe will walk away with $750.00—$895.30 if you include what they’ve taken from the donation itself.
Are you required to tip on GoFundMe?
Tipping is absolutely voluntary on GoFundMe, and if an unintentional tip is made—which is wholly possible, given that you must opt-out of the option—GoFundMe states the donor may request a refund.
However, GoFundMe does push donors to leave a tip through their verbiage. For example, on their website they explain that “by leaving a voluntary tip, you’re helping us to do more good in the world, and your generosity helps us provide a safe and secure experience for you and others in our community.” When phrased like that, one might feel a bit bad choosing to slide that tip scale to zero. Take a little stroll through Google and you’ll see this is why some people feel like the tip isn’t quite as voluntary as GoFundMe puts it.
This is where the discussion of where the burden of operating costs should be placed comes up. Is it the sole responsibility of the organizer? Or does it make sense for it to be included in donations? It’s a nuanced question that doesn’t have a simple answer, and it’s one your nonprofit will need to answer for itself.
What if GoFundMe isn’t the right choice for me?
Let’s say you’ve looked at the pros and cons of GoFundMe and have made the personal choice that it’s just not the right fit for your needs. What then?
Luckily, GoFundMe isn’t alone in the online fundraising sphere, there are plenty of other options for your nonprofit.
- Qgiv offers unlimited donation forms within their fundraising platform. The software puts a focus on donor experience, ensuring a quick and easy giving process. With the Gift Assist feature, donors can choose to cover transactional fees.
- If you’re serious about fundraising, Bloomerang is an all-in-one giving platform tailored specifically to meet the unique needs of nonprofits. If Qgiv’s donation forms appeal to you, you’re in luck—Bloomerang offers direct integration with the platform.
- Kickstarter, primarily known for crowdfunding creative projects, also includes an optional tip feature during the checkout process. Backers can choose to add a tip to their pledge to support Kickstarter.
- Indiegogo offers backers the option to “tip” the platform when making a contribution to a campaign to cover Indiegogo’s operational expenses.
- Patreon focuses on ongoing support for content creators, and offers a similar optional tip feature. Patrons can choose to tip to Patreon to support the platform in addition to their regular support for creators.
- Buy Me a Coffee enables supporters to “buy a coffee” for creators, and part of the contribution may go to the platform itself.
- Ko-fi (similar to Buy Me a Coffee) enables supporters to leave an optional tip for Ko-fi when making a contribution.
Final Thoughts
From the non-exhaustive list above, it’s clear that GoFundMe is not alone in their tipping model. At the end of the day, companies do need to make money, whether that be to cover operating expenses, transaction fees, or the like. Maybe GoFundMe tips make perfect sense to you, maybe they put you off. There’s no wrong answer. The world of crowdfunding is expansive and the most important thing is to choose a platform that fits your needs.
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