Some people trying to help California fire victims may face a confusing dilemma when donating to a crowdfunding campaign: Should they support the crowdfunding platform, too?

For people who choose to donate via the popular crowdfunding platform GoFundMe, their donation may have a tip automatically added on top of the donation. That goes to support GoFundMe – but you can adjust the tip lower, all the way to zero.

"GoFundMe is primarily powered by voluntary tips and relies on these completely optional contributions from donors to maintain our quality customer service, trust and safety protections, and world-class fundraising technology," the company said in its statement.

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The practice drew confusion on Saturday when L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger reported being shocked when she tried to make a GoFundMe donation for a friend who had lost their home in the Los Angeles area wildfires. In addition to her $500 donation, she was asked to pay an additional $95.

"I was shocked to find out that to give $500 they were going to charge (that)," she said during a press briefing on the fires Saturday.

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GoFundMe told USA TODAY it would reach out to Barger because they do not charge fees that large, although they do ask for tips. "The only fee on GoFundMe is a standard transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per donation, which helps us pay our payment processors and safely deliver funds," the company said in a statement to USA TODAY.

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Why does GoFundMe want a tip?

When you go to the GoFundMe site and opt to donate, after you enter your donation amount, the site also creates a tip.

You may get a different tip suggestion, but you can adjust the tip bar, from 0 to 30%, or click the "Enter custom tip" option.

"GoFundMe has a 0% platform fee for organizers and relies primarily on the generosity of donors like you to operate our service," the site says. When you opt to tip nothing, you also get this note: "Adding a GoFundMe tip means being a key part of improving the services for donors like you and the campaigns you support."

GoFundMe added a voluntary tip option in November 2017 when it instituted 0% fees for new personal fundraising campaigns to help cover the site's costs.

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How much of my GoFundMe donation goes to the person in need?

GoFundMe automatically takes 2.9% + 30 cents from each donation as a transaction fee. So if you donated $100, GoFundMe would take $2.90 plus 30 cents for a total of $3.20 (for handling the donation). $96.80 would go to the person in need.

GoFundMe, Inc., is a commercial, for-profit company that runs the GoFundMe.com fundraising platform, where you can set up personal fundraisers. GoFundMe.org is a nonprofit partner of GoFundMe, which is currently running a Wildfire Relief Fund for the Southern California fires that has raised $1.4 million and has begun distributing cash grants to GoFundMe personal fundraisers.

This story has been updated with new information.

Follow Mike Snider on Threads, Bluesky and X: mikegsnider &@mikegsnider.bsky.social &@mikesnider.

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