How to Tell if a 'Get So-and-So Out of Gaza' GoFundMe is Legit or Not

(thought I would share this as it contains some good info on the subject)

from Weird Friend on Reddit 3 months ago

No one in Gaza can organize a GoFundMe by themselves, I believe. GoFundMe doesn't operate in Gaza or Egypt or any of the surrounding countries, iirc. You need to have a bank account in one of the 19 countries GFM operates in. If you're in the US, you have to be a US citizen so I assume it's the same way in the other 18 countries.

Typically the GFM funds are deposited into the bank account of the organizer (in one of those 19 countries) and then the organizer transfers the funds to the beneficiary. There are lots of ways to do this. Some people in Gaza already have a bank account that can receive funds. Some people use PayPal. Some use cryptocurrency because the fees are lower.

My friend in Gaza told me a couple of months ago that there's only 1 ATM in Gaza right now, but a few days ago he said there are 2 or 3 so I think I originally misunderstood and he was trying to say there was only 1 near him. I'll make a post about what he said about banking in Gaza because a lot of people have asked questions about it.

Idk how to tell if a GFM is legit when you don't know the person. GFM does some vetting, but it seems like that only happens after a fundraiser meets some threshold over $10k or gets a large donation or a lot of donations in a short period of time. Operation Olive Branch does some vetting, too.

Some things GFM looks for: 

 

• How the organizer knows the beneficiary.

• How the beneficiary and organizer know the donors. (Like was it promoted by an influencer, are they friends of the organizer, etc.)

• Are direct family and friends making donations and leaving words of support?

• How the money will be transferred (they ask people to put that in the fundraiser, but most people don't.)

• The full names of all the beneficiaries, preferably with ages, relationships to the main beneficiary, and the name and city of the bank account for the beneficiary.

• What the money will be used for.

• The beneficiary's social media. The more social media, the better because it establishes an online identity. Insta, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. The dates these accounts were created, although some people only created them after the war started and they needed to ask for donations.

GFM can compare the names to a list of known terrorists, but there's no way for us to do that. We can look at the organizer's social media, though, to see if it looks like it's a real person. However, it's all just a guess unless you know someone involved.

It's safer to donate to legitimate charities, but I understand wanting to donate to individuals, too.