GoFundMe - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

GoFundMe is High Risk.

GoFundMe is High Risk. The company yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. GoFundMe embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	High Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	No Data
Employment Protection	Medium Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	Medium Risk
Funding	High Risk
Political Actions	No Data

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

GoFundMe has pulled multiple fundraising campaigns from its site (1). Notably, it canceled campaigns set up to support legal fees of Christian vendors who were being sued by state governments for refusing to serve same-sex weddings (2). GoFundMe also censored certain politically-aligned fundraisers it found “in its sole discretion to be unacceptable” (3). The company cancelled donations in support of Canadian truckers protesting coronavirus lockdowns in early 2022 (4).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

N/A

Rationale:

GoFundMe does not publish charitable giving guidelines (1).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

GoFundMe does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (1)(2).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

GoFundMe’s CEO, Tim Cadogan, signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge, which includes a commitment to promote DEI through bias education training in the workplace, strategize on DEI programs/initiatives with other signatories, and engage boards of directors when developing and evaluating DEI strategies (1)(2). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of the company using its reputation to advance ideological causes or policies (3).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

GoFundMe hosts charitable campaigns for BLM and Planned Parenthood (1)(2). The company also created a first-party fundraiser for its Justice and Equality Cause Fund, which has raised over $1 million for the Black Lives Matter movement and related causes (3)(4). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of the company using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (5).

Criteria:

Uses corporate political actions and/or financial contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.

Risk Level:

N/A

Rationale:

GoFundMe does not operate a PAC or engage in lobbying at this time (1)(2)(3).