I have heard a lot of talk about honoring Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman. I decided to set up a GoFundMe for people to donate to him and/or other Capitol Police officers.
The setup seemed really easy, then they sent me an email stating “your GoFundMe has been removed because we are unable to verify your connection or withdrawal plan to the intended recipient of the fundraiser’s donations” and a link to their very long terms of service. I’ve read it over and don’t see what I am supposed to do. I’ve contacted support, but no answer.
I would really like to make sure this is up and visible while this is still hot. Does anyone here know what I’m supposed to do?
First, you should check to see if someone a little closer to the family has already set up an account. The very real problem is that for every real tragedy there are an untold number of people more than willing to take advantage of the situation to line their own pockets. They want to know how you are connected to the family, and what guarantee you can provide that the family will be the only ones to profit by your proposed Go Fund Me.
How would one go about contacting the family of a random Capitol Police Officer from half way across the country? Also, why not just contact him directly and ask him to set it up? That would be just as easy, right?
1: Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman
2: Yes, but I still see people setting them up all of the time for all kinds of events. I was simply wondering if anyone knew what I needed to do.
At this point, I think I will abandon my grandiose plan to get him serious money and simply send him a check on my own. I just feel so useless.
Thank you for taking the time to answer. I know you are not GoFundMe tech support.
How would one go about donating money to the family of a random Capitol Police Officer from half way across the country? This is why they don’t allow random people to set up GoFundMe sites for people they don’t know.
Sounds like they want some proof of connection to the recipients, possibly to ensure that’s where the money ends up.
They have been known to shut down, and return funds, when people aren’t actually using it for the stated purposes, or it’s going through some other intermediary.
I think they prefer the recipient be identified clearly and they can check up where the funds are specifically going. It’s much easiest for them when the money goes directly to a named recipient, I think.
You can see how easy it would be, otherwise, to set up a fund for some unnamed individual, with the originator as the go between, and there’s no real evidence it went anywhere beyond the go between’s wallet!
Yeah, that’s the issue - if you don’t have a connection to the family to obtain their approval to set up the GoFundMe, how were you planning to send them the money that comes out of it?