When the Eaton wildfire swept into Los Angeles, Nick Carranza, a 45-year-old content director and producer, rushed to the house of his longtime friend, who was battling 15-foot flames with no firefighters in sight. Together, they managed to extinguish the blaze using water from a neighbor’s swimming pool.
Carranza, a former resident of Altadena, couldn’t sit on the sidelines during the crisis. He and a few of his friends created a “One Love Altadena” GoFundMe campaign to help vulnerable Altadena residents displaced from the fires.
“Altadena is such a diverse community with people from all socioeconomic backgrounds,” Carranza said. “I knew there were going to be people in trouble.”
After reaching an initial target goal of $10,000, their GoFundMe continues to collect money, with proceeds going to help Black and Latino families with their own fundraising campaigns.
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Ever since the Southern California wildfires broke out earlier this month, more than 600,000 donors have contributed to GoFundMe campaigns. As of Jan. 24, over $200 million has been raised on the platform to assist families, businesses and communities impacted by the crisis, according to a company representative.
The site’s California Wildfires Hub compiles a large number of individual fundraisers, and a general Wildfire Relief Fund sends “emergency relief grants of $1,000 each to individuals who have lost homes, loved ones and property due to the Palisades, Eaton and Hurst fires.”
If you’re interested in initiating or donating to a GoFundMe campaign to help the thousands of folks impacted by the ongoing Southern California wildfires, it’s important to know where to begin, how to verify beneficiaries and what pitfalls you might encounter.
How does GoFundMe work?
GoFundMe is a crowdfunding platform where people create fundraising pages for themselves or loved ones facing financial hardship, whether due to expensive medical treatment, a costly accident or a natural disaster.
The platform is easy to use. With a series of prompts, you can quickly set up a campaign and a fundraising goal for your cause. Once your fundraiser is live, you can add more information or change your fundraising goal. You can request a withdrawal of funds after your campaign starts, with transfers typically taking anywhere from two to five business days.
To cover payment processing, a standard fee, currently 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction, is deducted from the donation. Anyone can be a donor and contribute as little as $5 to a fundraising campaign.
Why are people using GoFundMe for disaster relief?
A major reason people are using GoFundMe for disaster relief is how easily they can spread the word through personal networks. You can share the link to your fundraising campaign via email, text or social media.
For example, after I donated to several campaigns of acquaintances who lost their homes in the wildfires, I shared the links on my social media, which helped bring in more donations.
GoFundMe also has an advantage over other official sources of aid because it’s more immediately available. Individuals who are waiting on grants, loans or other forms of assistance often turn to GoFundMe to get quicker relief or raise awareness of their cause.
How do you know if a GoFundMe page is legit or a scam?
GoFundMe has measures in place to detect potential scams and prevent misuse of the platform. According to its website, the GoFundMe Giving Guarantee provides donors a full refund if there is an indication of abuse or fraud.
A GoFundMe spokesperson told CNET in an email that fundraisers undergo an enhanced verification review process, which includes oversight from trust and safety experts and technical tools to help catch any misuse.
That said, scams can and do happen. It’s best to donate to campaign organizers and recipients you know personally or through a family member or mutual friend. Look for inconsistencies and flag anything that seems fishy — for instance, if the story doesn’t add up or if the names on the fundraising page don’t match the recipients.
“Always do your research before donating,” said Tai Stewart, founder of Saidia Financial Solutions. “There are vetting processes in place, but you should do your own due diligence.”
You can also do a Google reverse-image search to verify any source or location information. My friend tried this for a particular LA fires fundraiser after noticing something was off. The photo’s location was in Ohio, not Altadena.
In Carranza’s case, he and his fellow campaign organizers make sure donations are dutifully distributed by personally contacting households in need and learning about their circumstances. For example, they confirmed that an elderly couple who ran a foster home and daycare lost both their home and source of income to the wildfires.
Do funds from GoFundMe limit federal aid options?
Since the wildfires broke out in LA, some experts have warned that crowdfunding donations received from GoFundMe could limit the amount of federal aid you receive.
Brandi Richard Thompson, a FEMA public affairs officer, said that the agency can’t duplicate assistance that individuals receive from another source, whether it’s from an insurance payout or a donation.
To be clear, those receiving outside donations aren’t automatically disqualified from federal aid. But if someone has a GoFundMe campaign to rebuild their home because their house burned down, it could be construed as receiving funds elsewhere for the same loss.
“[The case] would have to be reviewed to make sure they aren’t duplicating the benefit that they receive from the federal government,” Richard Thompson said.
However, if someone makes it clear they’re raising money only for temporary needs (food, shelter or clothing), that shouldn’t affect how much they can receive from the federal government.
FEMA’s California Wildfires page provides information on programs, funding and resources available to residents impacted by the wildfires. The deadline to apply for FEMA rental assistance for displaced residents is March 10, 2025.
If you raise money on GoFundMe, do you have to pay taxes on it?
Personal gifts usually aren’t tax deductible, so you shouldn’t worry too much about paying taxes on the fundraising money you receive. “You can think of it as if a friend gave you $10,” Stewart said. “You wouldn’t report that as income on your taxes.”
However, depending on how the payments were processed for your campaign, income from Venmo, Zelle, PayPal or via credit card could likely fall under the 1099-K category, Stewart said.
If payments exceed $5,000, a 1099-K tax form will be sent to the person receiving the campaign funds, but that doesn’t automatically mean it’s taxable income. It’s best to consult a tax professional to go over the specifics and understand your tax responsibilities.
If you donate to GoFundMe, is it tax deductible?
You should do research before making a donation to see if the crowdfunding page contains any tax information.
Some GoFundMe campaigns are posted by nonprofits, which is usually disclosed on the campaign page, or you can do a search for tax-exempt nonprofits with the IRS’s lookup tool. If you are donating to an organization that is registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, you can get a tax write-off for your charitable contributions.
Otherwise, if you’re offering a donation to an individual or a household, the way you would give money to a friend or family member, it’s considered a personal gift, Stewart said.
How is GoFundMe helping LA wildfire victims?
Carranza is just one of the many individuals using the crowdfunding platform to help those displaced by the fires. By extending a hand to Altadena residents, he and his fellow organizers learned about other folks in need. Many of the displaced, without technical access or English-speaking capacity, didn’t have their own GoFundMe campaigns.
For example, Carranza encountered a woman living in a borrowed car with three cats. The fires destroyed her home, workplace and car.
“Sometimes people need the help but aren’t always ready to ask for it,” Carranza said. “Just show up however you can.”
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