Within hours of the Bondi beach terror attack, the money had already begun to pour in. As images of the tragedy flooded social media, people from around the world donated tens of thousands of dollars to the victims, their families and first responders.
Passing the hat around the neighbourhood or the local pub has always been a staple response in times of crisis. But today, that instinct to open your wallet has been exponentially supercharged via a digital simulacrum: online crowdfunding platforms.
GoFundMe fundraisers have since raised more than $3m for Ahmed al-Ahmed, who tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen before he suffered three gunshot wounds to his shoulder. Among dozens of other appeals in the wake of the shooting, $1m has also been raised for the family of the youngest victim, 10-year-old Matilda.
And this month, as unprecedented bushfires swept through regional communities in Victoria, crowdfunding campaigns shot up to help families rebuild from the ashes.
“During times of mass catastrophe, we can easily feel overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness in witnessing such extraordinary harms,” says Dr Matthew Wade, a sociology and ethics researcher at La Trobe University.
If helplessness is the ailment, then crowdfunding can feel like the antidote. Donating directly to an individual or cause via a crowdfunding platform is a tangible action to alleviate someone’s suffering, offering donors a sense of immediate impact that donating to a conventional charity can’t easily replicate, Wade says.
Since the globally dominant online crowdfunding platform, GoFundMe, launched in Australia in 2015, Australians have donated more than $1.1bn to causes on the platform. Worldwide, more than $40bn has been donated since it was founded in 2010 in the US. Unlike a charity, GoFundMe is a for-profit company, charging transaction fees on donations and encouraging donors to leave an optional tip. The company says this model allows it to provide a secure, user-friendly service at scale.
According to GoFundMe, nearly one in five Australians now make their first ever charitable donation on the platform; a figure that rises to 40% among gen Z. At the same time, the share of Australians making tax-deductible donations – usually only applicable to money given to conventional charities – has fallen from 35% in 2013 to 28% in 2023. In the digital age, the dynamics of giving are changing.
‘Wildly diverging outcomes’
Beyond supporting victims of tragedy, crowdfunding platforms host appeals for an extraordinary range of causes, from legal defence funds and relocation costs to vet bills and recreational travel costs. Some resonate widely; others attract criticism or go largely unnoticed.
Medical fundraisers are the most common on GoFundMe. In some sense they are no different from a manager doing a whip around the office for a sick employee, only more efficient, sharable and with far greater reach.
It’s a system that’s proved hugely successful and life-changing for some, but statistically, is much more likely to fail. One analysis estimated that just 17% of US GoFundMe campaigns for health care and emergency costs meet their fundraising goal. Wade says this highlights the “wildly diverging outcomes” propagated by crowdfunding platforms.
“Of course during desperate times any donations are better than none at all, but it can come at a significant personal cost in forgoing privacy and placing oneself in an incredibly vulnerable position in appealing to the crowd for the moral worthiness of yourself or a loved one,” he says.
With the power to decide – consciously or algorithmically – which campaigns are promoted, permitted or removed, crowdfunding platforms have become the arbiters of which causes are deemed acceptable, and which are not. According to an Al Jazeera report, GoFundMe has been accused of blocking millions of dollars of life-saving aid from reaching Gaza. In a statement, a GoFundMe spokesperson called the allegations “categorically false”.
Meanwhile, $1.5m has been raised on the platform for Renee Nicole Good’s family and widow after she was shot dead in Minneapolis by ICE immigration officer Jonathan Ross. The platform is hosting a campaign to support Ross too, raising more than $793k at the time of writing.
Those who become symbols of a cause – captured on video or framed as heroes – can attract overwhelming support, as do people with large social networks and the ability to craft an impactful appeal, while others affected by the same event receive little or nothing.
These disparities raise broader questions about the proliferation of crowdfunding in areas traditionally covered by the state. In 2022, the then MP Petter Dutton was criticised for launching a GoFundMe for flood victims in his local electorate rather than using government resources to distribute aid.
“The point of having state-based compensation for victims of violence and disaster is precisely to prevent them from having to advocate for the value of their own lives during times of immense suffering and anguish,” Wade says.
A culture of giving
In the crowdfunding age, donations can flow to any individual who, however well-meaning, may be unequipped to distribute large sums of money to where it’s needed most, says Prof Wendy Scaife, a philanthropy and fundraising expert at the Queensland University of Technology.
For this reason, Scaife says crowdfunding has been a “mixed blessing” for the charity sector. On one hand it can help bring in more revenue; about 5% of money raised on GoFundMe in Australia has gone towards a registered charity, and the platform offers charities a secure way to fundraise quickly and at scale, reaching donors they otherwise traditionally couldn’t.
But on the other, Scaife says it has the potential to divert donations away from where they could have more impact, particularly in the wake of natural disasters.
“After bushfires it’ll be a tiny grassroots animal organisation, it will see millions come through the door and they don’t have the capacity to spend it,” Scaife says. “It sounds like a nice problem to have but it’s not.”
Instead, in most cases Scaife recommends donating to reputable charities to get money to where it’s needed most. “They know what works and what doesn’t, they know how to place money for impact.”
But adds: “Giving to individuals is perfectly sound too, and more so if it was your local area and you really know those people, or you wanted that connection.”
Whether or not donations made to crowdfunding platforms displace or supplement money that people would otherwise give to charities, however, is unclear. Krystian Seibert, the executive director of policy at Philanthropy Australia, says it’s a possibility. “If people give more using one method, then they may give less using another,” he says.
According to its survey findings, GoFundMe posits that 40% of people are “more charitable” after using their platform for the first time, suggesting the platform is a gateway to a more altruistic lifestyle.
Seibert says while the link between giving to crowdfunding campaigns and charities is complex, having multiple convenient avenues for donating can help build a “culture of giving”. “Generally, if people get into the habit of giving, they’ll want to give more,” he says.
‘Think with your head, not just your heart’
Peter Singer has spent a good chunk of his life pressing the case of giving to others. Often bestowed as the world’s most influential living philosopher, Singer is a key supporter of the effective altruism movement, which uses evidence and research to determine where the keenest need is, and the most impactful ways to help the most people.
Singer applauds people’s compassion for donating to crowdfunding campaigns. “But I wish donors would also use their head as well as their hearts, and try to do the most good with the money they have,” he says.
Although the proportion of Australians making tax-deductible donations to charities is falling, the total amount of money donated each year is rising, largely due to rising donations from corporates and the ultra wealthy. Even so, Singer argues we must give more.
Like many effective altruists, he advocates for people living in wealthy countries to donate at least 10% of their income to highly impactful charities. In Australia, the average percentage of income donated to an individual in need, charity or religious group is 0.73%, according to the 2025 World Giving Report.
“Many Australians have the ability to give and I would encourage them to do so,” he says. “It’s something that can make our lives better, by feeling that we are doing something meaningful with what we’ve got.”
