Kamloops is GoFundMe’s most generous Canadian city, but local non-profits are still struggling

United Way Thompson-Cariboo-Nicola spokesperson Katie Neustaeter says she was thrilled to hear about Kamloops being named GoFundMe’s most generous Canadian city but stresses the importance of supporting local organizations.

“Kamloops is generous whenever there’s a need, and GoFundMe meets an individual need that often arises from a single event which is incredibly important, but what programs and non-profits in our community do is wrap around people and put services in place for long-term solutions,” she says. “We never discourage giving. Any way that people want to meet the needs of others, we’re so supportive of, but we do know that things like putting food in bellies or helping families exit poverty, or helping people to age well, require long-term solutions if we’re going to address the systemic problems.”

Not-for-profit agencies use donations to fund programs, services, administrative costs and employee payroll.

According to GoFundMe, the site takes a fee from campaigns.

“Payment processing fees on crowdfunding websites are unavoidable. This is because every purchase or money transfer made online needs to be securely processed and verified by a third-party payment processor,” the organization’s website states. “There is a fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 fee per donation on GoFundMe. These fees go directly to our payment processor and help us keep GoFundMe a safe place to donate.”

A Way Home Kamloops executive director Katherine McParland says because of those fees, it’s important for donors to consider contributing to organizations directly.

“Kamloops is super generous and our community is amazing, but I would encourage donors in our community to give directly to organizations that are doing the work to avoid some of those extra administrative fees that can happen with platforms such as GoFundMe.”

Colin Reid is the CEO of the Kamloops YM-YWCA. He believes GoFundMe may play a part when it comes to donations being down for many non-profits in the community.

“Is that impacting some local charities? I suspect it is. We still have a core group of donors and supporters and in the donation world, every year, you get surprises. Some of them are very, very good surprises, and some of them surprise the other way,” Reid says. “Sometimes it’s hard for local charities and not-for-profits to compete for charitable giving because maybe our stories aren’t as well known or we’re not using the GoFundMe format, or we have limited electronic asks, but certainly the community is very charitable in many, many ways.”

Neustaeter says she can’t know for sure if crowdfunding websites have led to fewer donations to local programs.

“I don’t know whether we could say that that shift has been quantifiable without looking at information on that,” Neustaeter says. “We do know that non-profits are struggling, we do know that their ability to fill in those gaps is more challenging than ever right now.”

Reid, McParland and Neustaeter all point out how important GoFundMe campaigns can be for people in emergency situations who need funding, but that’s not always the case for people in need.

McParland points to A Way Home Kamloops’s Safe Suites project aimed at ending youth homelessness.

“I think that’s something that sometimes we can lose through the GoFundMe, is when you donate to a non-profit you’re also supporting that in-kind support,” she says. “Often when people are struggling it’s more than just an issue that can be solved with funds.”

by Ashley Legassic

Kamloops is GoFundMe’s most generous Canadian city, but local non-profits are still struggling

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