GoFundMe axed a group providing tents for displaced Gazans—freezing $250,000 in donations

(You can never tell with GFM. They usually pay out on fundraisers to help folks in Gaza but sometimes if the money raised is beyond a certain point (from what I can gather it's 10k USD) they just freeze it and send it back to the donors. Also, some well meaning people who set these up for individuals are being approached by folks using VPNs to mask their actual locations, claiming to be family members looking to get out of Gaza. They are asked to set up GFM campaigns for this effort and the money ends up going to them in UK or India or Detroit somewhere. Be careful if someone does this. They have cleverly designed back stories and some even have established social media footprints.)

from the Daily Dot Sept 5 2024

GoFundMe pulled a fundraiser by Translating Falasteen and The Sameer Project on Tuesday. The Sameer Project delivers critical aid to Palestinian civilians under bombardment by the Israeli Army in Gaza, while Translating Falasteen posts videos translated into English documenting the war. 

According to an Instagram post from The Sameer Project, the donations in the GoFundMe pot, which will now be returned to donors, are worth more than $250,000.

Losing that money creates “an absolute disaster for our efforts to exist,” The Sameer Project posted on Instagram in reaction to the news...

read more here

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: