GoFundMe Promises To Refund $20 Million in Border Wall Donations After Owner Changes Campaign
GoFundMe will refund $20 million to over 337,000 donors after an account intending to raise money for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border changed part of its campaign.
The GoFundMe campaign created last month by Brian Kolfage originally promised that “every single penny” would be refunded to donors if the $1 billion goal was not reached, The Hill reported.
Kolfage originally stated that the money from the campaign would go to the government to fund a border wall.
However, Kolfage updated the page on Friday, saying that soon the federal government would not be able to accept the donations. He wrote that he had created a nonprofit corporation called “We Build the Wall, Inc.” to receive the GoFundMe contributions instead.
He argued that his corporation was “better equipped than our own government to use the donated funds to build an actual wall on the southern border.”
The updated GoFundMe page states that the donations will be used to execute the mission of his new nonprofit.
“To honor the commitment, we made to our donors; all funds raised, less the processing fees and refunds, will be transferred to a special purpose account to carry out the purposes and mission of We Build the Wall, Inc.,” Kolfage wrote. “I will personally not take a penny of compensation from these donations.”
Because the original intent of the campaign was changed, GoFundMe now says the 337,000 donors will be refunded.
“When the campaign was created, the campaign organizer specifically stated on the campaign page, ‘If we don’t reach our goal or come significantly close we will refund every single penny,’” GoFundMe spokesman Bobby Whithorne told The Hill on Friday.
“He also stated on the campaign page, ‘100% of your donations will go to the Trump Wall. If for ANY reason we don’t reach our goal we will refund your donation,'” Whithorne continued. “However, that did not happen.”
“This means all donors will receive a refund. If a donor does not want a refund, and they want their donation to go to the new organization, they must proactively elect to redirect their donation to that organization. If they do not take that step, they will automatically receive a full refund.”
Kolfage, a triple amputee veteran and Purple Heart recipient, created the crowdfunding campaign last month just before a lack of funding drove a partial government shutdown amid presidential demands for border wall funding. The campaign went viral, bringing in more than $11.5 million in just four days.
But as the campaign gained momentum, reports of Kolfage’s past GoFundMe misdeeds surfaced, along with an alleged history of running websites that promoted racism and fake news.
Whithorne told BuzzFeed News that Kolfage launched a GoFundMe in 2015 to raise money for a veteran mentorship program. However, Whithorne says that Kolfage directly pocketed the $16,246 he raised under the campaign.
In now-deleted Facebook posts, Kolfage claimed that he was coordinating with Walter Reed, Brooke Army Medical Center and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to entrust them with the donated money.
Representatives for all three medical centers told BuzzFeed News that they had no record of Kolfage creating peer-mentoring programs or working with patients.
Gia Oney, chief of public affairs at Landstuhl, told BuzzFeed that they had no “record of Mr. Kolfage visiting Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in any official capacity after 2012,” nor of any donations made in his name.
Some of Kolfage’s former employees are making claims that they were manipulated and threatened by Kolfage after challenging his business decisions.
Lindsay Lowery, who worked for one of Kolfage’s largest news websites in 2017, told BuzzFeed that she believes Kolfage was trying to use the GoFundMe campaigns to gain standing in public opinion.
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