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Speaker 1: Now, technology has changed a lot about finance, including fundraising.

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Speaker 1: Go fund Me, the US crowdfunding platform sets up in

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Speaker 1: twenty ten, operates in twenty countries, including here in the UK,

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Speaker 1: where it's celebrating two million fundraisers being started here. Everything

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Speaker 1: from a statue to commemorate Monty Python's Terry Jones, to

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Speaker 1: funding cochlear ear implants, cancer care and help for the

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Speaker 1: victims of the recent Dagenham fire. Joining me now is

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Speaker 1: go fund Me CEO Tim mcaduggan, who's on a visit

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Speaker 1: to the UK. Welcome to the radio studio, Tim, Good morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, great to be here.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so I want to dig into this story. I mean,

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Speaker 1: to me, it was a staggering amount of money actually

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Speaker 1: that is going through the crowdfunding platform. You say that

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Speaker 1: the public is actually being more generous than ever. I

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Speaker 1: suppose the optimistic version is that this democratizes fundraising, right,

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Speaker 1: he puts fundraising on your phone to anybody. Critics say

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Speaker 1: that it exacerbates inequalities, that it's basically a kind of

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Speaker 1: symptom of government failures. Why people giving and why are

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Speaker 1: they being so generous?

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Speaker 2: Now, Well, it really goes back to a fundamental impulse

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Speaker 2: which is we all want to help one another. And

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Speaker 2: what we see now is that something that we have

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Speaker 2: done ever since we have been around is now happening

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Speaker 2: digitally and go fummi has just made it really easy

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Speaker 2: and simple for you to help other people, and typically

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Speaker 2: that's your friends and family and people in your community

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Speaker 2: coming together to help.

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Speaker 3: Go fund me overall is a for profit business. Should

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Speaker 3: there be more transparency about what successful fundraising is on

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Speaker 3: your size?

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Speaker 2: We put an enormous amount of time into thinking about

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Speaker 2: how do we make it easier for people to set

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Speaker 2: up a fundraiser and be successful with that, and so

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Speaker 2: recently we've started to use a lot more AI technology

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Speaker 2: to help with some of those processes. So, for instance,

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Speaker 2: writing the headline of your story is quite difficult for

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Speaker 2: a lot of people, so we now give people AI

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Speaker 2: generated suggestions that they can choose if they like, and

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Speaker 2: we're finding that over fifty percent of people choose those

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Speaker 2: titles and their campaigns do better as a result. So

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Speaker 2: that's just one example of the ways that we're sort

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Speaker 2: of smoothing the path for them to try and make

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Speaker 2: it more successful then for them to fundraise.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean a lot of the campaigns are

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Speaker 1: obviously very highly personal, not always kind of traumatic, sometimes

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Speaker 1: more optimistic. But yes, it's a lot of it is about,

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Speaker 1: from what I read, algorithms that boost the different campaigns.

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Speaker 1: I suppose what happens. You talk about two million fundraisers

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Speaker 1: being started here in the UK, how many are successful,

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Speaker 1: How do you characterize success and how much information do

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Speaker 1: you think individuals who use the site should be given

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Speaker 1: actually about the kind of goals that they're putting up there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, so what you just talked about goals.

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Speaker 2: One of the things we're working on is that you

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Speaker 2: get to set a goal for each fundraiser, and that's

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Speaker 2: actually a hard thing to do. So people don't know.

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Speaker 2: Most people setting up a fundraiser haven't done it before

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Speaker 2: and they don't know do I set it for five

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Speaker 2: hundred pounds or a thousand? So again, we'll use technology

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Speaker 2: and the data we have from over thirty billion of

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Speaker 2: fundraising that we've had on the platform to help people

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Speaker 2: pick a number that makes sense and then they can

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Speaker 2: change that number over time.

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Speaker 1: The thing is registered charitable trusts in the UK. They

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Speaker 1: have a lot of scrutiny, you know, when they raise money,

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Speaker 1: when they ask people when they may perhap to do

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Speaker 1: a TV spot or a radio spot commercial and an advert,

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Speaker 1: they have to answer a lot of questions in the

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Speaker 1: UK about what their money goes towards. That's not quite

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Speaker 1: the same when it comes to crowdfunding.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's not exactly the same, but we do a

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Speaker 2: lot of so we as you mentioned, a lot of

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Speaker 2: the stories are very personal and so people have to

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Speaker 2: trust us. So the most important thing we do is

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Speaker 2: make sure we earn that trust every day, so we

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Speaker 2: are ensuring and verifying every campaign. We make sure that

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Speaker 2: the person who's setting up the campaign is actually that person.

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Speaker 2: We make sure that the story is legitimate, and we

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Speaker 2: make sure that the money is going to the correct

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Speaker 2: recipient of the campaign, and we work with of third

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Speaker 2: party payment providers as well on the back and all

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Speaker 2: the money actually goes through third party banks before it

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Speaker 2: is sent to the recipient. So there's a lot of

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Speaker 2: work that goes into making sure that the right campaigns

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Speaker 2: are up there and being presented with the right level

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Speaker 2: of scrutiny.

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Speaker 3: But what constitutes a good or a worthy cause can

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Speaker 3: be quite contentious. How do you navigate that? You know,

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Speaker 3: I'm thinking about events in the middle East, for example,

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Speaker 3: where many go funding funding campaigns could be considered controversial.

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Speaker 2: Well, really, you know, we think about what is within

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Speaker 2: our terms of service, and beyond that, it's up to

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Speaker 2: our users and not just the people who are asking

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Speaker 2: for money, but the people who are giving money. So

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Speaker 2: what may be controversial to one person may not be

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Speaker 2: controversial to another person, and we leave that to the

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Speaker 2: community to decide what do they want to support.

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Speaker 1: And that's the bit that I think is so interesting

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Speaker 1: because so this is an argument that is used widely

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Speaker 1: across social media plans, right that it's that the social

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Speaker 1: media platforms are facilitators and it's up to the individual

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Speaker 1: to do sort of more of the thinking. That argument

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Speaker 1: is facing a big challenge and that is being driven

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Speaker 1: largely by the EU in terms of regulation around social media.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that crowdfunding platforms like yours might be

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Speaker 1: next in terms of in terms of that regulatory drive.

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Speaker 2: Well, actually, we already say that we are responsible for

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Speaker 2: what is on our platform, and we do put everything

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Speaker 2: through those reviews because money is flowing and it's very

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Speaker 2: important that we adhere to the standards that we set

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Speaker 2: and the legal obligations that we and our payment partners have,

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Speaker 2: so we hold ourselves to those standards already, and I

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Speaker 2: think we do a great job. And that's one of

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Speaker 2: the reasons why so many people use our platform because

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Speaker 2: they trust it.

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Speaker 3: So what sort of proportion of campaigns would be rejected?

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Speaker 2: Then a very small percent, because you have to understand

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Speaker 2: that most of fundraising is for friends and family and

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Speaker 2: people in your community, and so if you set up

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Speaker 2: a fundraisers not legitimate, it really doesn't go anywhere. That's

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Speaker 2: the first proof point is it's not strangers that start

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Speaker 2: the support of a campaign. It starts with the people

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Speaker 2: that know you and want to help you with the

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Speaker 2: situation you're in your life. And then on occasion, the

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Speaker 2: campaigns that you more typically hear in the news, you

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Speaker 2: hear about them, they go broader and reach a broader

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Speaker 2: set of people. But most campaigns are about things in

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Speaker 2: your life and the people who are supporting you, the

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Speaker 2: people who know you, care about you, love you, want

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Speaker 2: to support you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I suppose that's why you wonder. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if is that then go fundme that is scrutinizing the

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Speaker 1: donations or is it the people around the fundraisers who

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Speaker 1: are squets?

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Speaker 2: We're doing both. Obviously, people are around the fundraiser are

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Speaker 2: looking and seeing who else supported, but we're also reviewing

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Speaker 2: every single donation to make sure it's legitimate. And so

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Speaker 2: we play our part, but the community or so plays

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Speaker 2: their part.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's quite a big claim. It's quite a

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Speaker 1: big statement, isn't it, to say that you're scrutinizing everyone.

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Speaker 1: But look, I also want to ask about growth because

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Speaker 1: I mentioned that you're in twenty countries and I was

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Speaker 1: pretty staggered by the amount of money that is flowing

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Speaker 1: to crowdfunding websites. In terms of next sources of growth,

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Speaker 1: where do you see those?

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Speaker 2: Well, we see them in the countries that we're currently operating,

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Speaker 2: and actually we just added a couple We just launched

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Speaker 2: in Mexico in April, and that's been growing very very quickly,

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Speaker 2: which has been thrilling to see. We just extended to

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Speaker 2: the region of Puerto Rico just about a month ago,

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Speaker 2: So adding markets is one source. But also we're still

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Speaker 2: actually quite a small part of the overall giving and

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Speaker 2: philanthropic industry, and so there's a lot of opportunity to

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Speaker 2: grow just by helping people understand this is an accessible

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Speaker 2: way to ask for help. It is an accessible way

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Speaker 2: to mobilize your community to help you. And so by

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Speaker 2: making it easier and building the brand and reputation, which

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Speaker 2: we've been doing I think good job of makes it

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Speaker 2: more accessible to more people. So it's a lot of

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Speaker 2: opportunity in the twenty markets that we're currently in.

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Speaker 3: What kind of support do you give to And we

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Speaker 3: hear about these campaigns that take off, and you know,

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Speaker 3: people go out looking for maybe a couple of thousand

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Speaker 3: dollars or pounds and end up with much much more.

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Speaker 3: When campaigns do take off, how do you support people

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Speaker 3: that might end up with an awful lot more money

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Speaker 3: than they originally planned to handle.

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Speaker 2: Well, everyone has access to all of the tools which

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Speaker 2: we keep improving upon. But if in the situation you

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Speaker 2: mentioned where something takes off, we have a special team

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Speaker 2: that will come in and handhold people through that situation

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Speaker 2: because it can be unexpected and it can lead to

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Speaker 2: pressure and difficult questions that people hadn't anticipated. So we

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Speaker 2: have a team that works through that and has a

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Speaker 2: long history of helping people through that process.

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Speaker 1: Okay, but you don't put out data on how many

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Speaker 1: of those sorts of funds exist. I mean should there

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Speaker 1: be more transparency about what people are raising on the

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Speaker 1: platform overall, because that's not put out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we share it. It's sort of I mean, I

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Speaker 2: can give you some sense of it. A lot of it.

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Speaker 2: A lot of fundraising is around medical issues, probably not surprising.

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Speaker 2: They are also emergencies. We may see situations like in

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Speaker 2: the wake of the recent riots in the North of England,

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Speaker 2: we saw a lot of fundraisers for say Liverpool Library

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Speaker 2: which raised two hundred and fifty thousand pounds citizens device

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Speaker 2: Buriens in Sunderland that was burnt out. Those are sort

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Speaker 2: of emergency related campaigns. And then we see a lot

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Speaker 2: of life you know, we see people raising for their pets.

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Speaker 2: We see people raising to help buy books for their

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Speaker 2: kid that's going to university. We see people raising for

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Speaker 2: their arts center or you know, a pub that they

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Speaker 2: want to see renovated that they support, or a local

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Speaker 2: library or a bookshop. So a broad range, really a

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Speaker 2: full range of what you can imagine people needing helpful

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Speaker 2: in their lives.

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Speaker 3: How much for our de deal with platform? How many

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Speaker 3: cases would you identify in a year.

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Speaker 2: It's a very small percentage actually, because what most people

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Speaker 2: are doing is good. What most people are doing is

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Speaker 2: asking for help. There's completely legitimate and they're asking for

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Speaker 2: their friends and families, so it's actually a very small part.

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Speaker 3: Do you work with law enforcement if there's allegations of.

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Speaker 2: Fraud, absolutely we do. You know, crowdfunding fraud is a crime,

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Speaker 2: and we work with law enforcement in those rare cases

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Speaker 2: to make sure those prosecutions proceed. The other thing I

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Speaker 2: want to mention is, on top of all the checks

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Speaker 2: that we do with the data and technology that we

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Speaker 2: have by virtue of having thirty billion of fundraising through

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Speaker 2: the platform, we also have a last line of defense

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Speaker 2: if you like, which is called the gofund Me Giving Guarantee,

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Speaker 2: which means that any donation of any amount in any

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Speaker 2: anywhere from around the world for a year after the

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Speaker 2: donation is fully covered if there's any kind of problem.

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Speaker 2: We're the only company in the space that has that