GiveSendGo

Christian crowdfunding website

GiveSendGo
Type of site
Crowdfunding
Available in18 languages
Founded2014[1]
HeadquartersBoston, MA
Founder(s)Heather Wilson, Jacob Wells[1][2]
Revenue$4-5 million (2022)[3]
Employees25 (as of 2022)[4]
URLgivesendgo.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedOctober 2015[1]
Current statusOnline

GiveSendGo is a Christian crowdfunding website.[5]

The website was founded in 2014 to fundraise "for missionary trips, medical expenses for needy families, and other charitable causes,"[4] and because the founders perceived GoFundMe to have an anti-Christian bias.[5] GiveSendGo has also described itself as a fundraising platform that values freedom.[2]

GiveSendGo gained prominence after GoFundMe took down several controversial campaigns that it claimed violated its terms of service, in particular for Kyle Rittenhouse,[4] rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6,[4][6][7] and the Canada convoy protest.[5][8][9]

History

In April 2021 and February 2022, Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) made donor information from GiveSendGo available to journalists and researchers. The information identified previously anonymous high-dollar donors to far-right actors including members of the Proud Boys, many of whose fundraising efforts were directly related to the 2021 United States Capitol attack.[8][10] The platform had previously been criticized for its refusal to restrict use by far-right extremists.[11][5] The leaks also revealed that police officers and public officials in the United States had donated to Kyle Rittenhouse.[12][13] In May 2021, USA Today used the GiveSendGo data to report that nearly $100,000 was raised for the Proud Boys on GiveSendGo from people of Chinese descent in the days before the 2021 Capitol attack.[14] The following month, they used the data to report that a member of the Koch family had anonymously donated to a crowdfunding campaign supporting 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories.[15]

A January 2023 report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) stated that GiveSendGo had hosted 230 fundraising campaigns tied to extremist groups and causes. The ADL described GiveSendGo as "a singularly important part of the extremist fundraising ecosystem" that enabled extremist groups to raise $5.4 million since 2016.[16][17][18]

Controversy

GiveSendGo has attracted controversy for allowing far-right, neo-Nazi,[19][20] alt-right, and white supremacist activists and hate groups to fundraise.[5][8][4][21][19][22][23]

In January 2022, the British anti-disinformation organization Logically reported that GiveSendGo was the hub for a far-right funding network that included QAnon supporters, anti-vaccine activists and the far-right group Project Veritas.[24]

GiveSendGo has been described by critics as "alt-tech".[4][25][26]

Kyle Rittenhouse

A GiveSendGo campaign for Kyle Rittenhouse raised over $250,000,[27][28] while similar campaigns on GoFundMe[29] and Fundly were removed.[30] In response, Discover blocked transactions toward GiveSendGo.[31][9] It was the Kyle Rittenhouse campaign that is cited as the event that gave GiveSendGo its reputation as a refuge for campaigns too controversial for other crowdfunding sites.[32][9] The leak published by DDoSecrets also revealed that police officers and public officials in the United States had donated to Rittenhouse.[12][13]

2021 United States Capitol attack

PayPal suspended payments to GiveSendGo because it was raising funds for people who had participated in the 2021 United States Capitol attack.[33][6][34] As of April 2022, the site had helped rioters raise over $3.5 million.[35] In January 2021, after receiving objections from Stripe, one of their payment processing providers, GiveSendGo suspended the ability for users to donate to pages associated with the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories.[9][36][37][38]

Canadian convoy protests 2022

In early February 2022, supporters of the trucker convoy occupying Ottawa, the Canadian capital, and blocking border crossings between Canada and the U.S. to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions, raised over $9 million on the GiveSendGo platform.[39][40][41]

On February 10, 2022, a statement was issued by Ontario's premier, Doug Ford, stating that the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, upon request from the Ontario provincial Government, has granted a restraining order against the company, intended to freeze all donations raised for the protesters.[42][43] The GiveSendGo founders responded on Twitter that any funds raised via GiveSendGo flow directly to the campaign recipients, denied that the funds are actually frozen, and denied that Canada has jurisdiction over GiveSendGo management.[44]

During parliamentary questioning in March 2022, co-founder Jacob Wells stated that because of GiveSendGo's firm stance on free speech, even if individuals belonged to groups such the Ku Klux Klan and the Proud Boys, they would still be permitted to fundraise on their website, provided the activity was legal.[5][45][2][46] Since February 2021, the Proud Boys have been designated as a terrorist group by the Canadian government.[47]

Data security

In February 2022, after many anonymous donors supported the 2022 Freedom Convoy, DDoSecrets began providing journalists and researchers with a hacked list of donors' personal information from GiveSendGo. Later that month, GiveSendGo was hacked again, exposing donors for every campaign in the site's history, which DDoSecrets gave to journalists and researchers.[10]

A report by TechCrunch on February 8, 2022, noted that a security lapse had exposed the personal information of donors.[48][49]

On the early morning of February 11, 2022, the GiveSendGo website was hacked and redirected to givesendgone.wtf, which displayed a message condemning the website, the Freedom Convoy, and their sympathizers as a threat to democracy. A video from the Disney film Frozen II was set as a backdrop to the statement calling the donors and protesters "hatriots", "grifters", and "assholes" and focusing on scenarios of domestic or foreign influenced insurgencies disguised as protests.[50]

A link to a .csv file, allegedly containing names of Freedom Convoy donors, was also posted. Shortly after the hack was noticed and began trending on the social media, the website domain was restored. The GiveSendGo website was not operational as of February 14, instead, displaying the message "Application is under maintenance we will be back very soon."[50]

A data breach on February 13, 2022, was reported by Vice News.[51] The breach revealed the personal details of 92,845 donors to the Freedom Convoy fundraising campaign, including a $90,000 donation by American software billionaire Thomas Siebel.[51] Of the 92,845 donations, 55.7% of donors were from the United States, and 39% from Canada. Some of the American donors' names correspond to the names of donors to Donald Trump's campaigns.[52][51] Some members of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were revealed to have donated to the convoy on GiveSendGo, prompting the OPP to launch an internal conduct investigation.[53]

A data breach on February 15, 2022, was reported by The Daily Dot.[10] The data included a full database dump, source code for their Bitbucket repo, information from their customer service systems and some credit card information. The Daily Dot claimed GiveSendGo had been warned about the vulnerability in 2018. Several of the donors reported harassment and professional consequences after their names were published online.[54][55]

On February 24, 2022, another data breach was reported by The Daily Dot.[56] The data included more information on donors to the Freedom Convoy fundraiser.

Convoy to Canberra

The Convoy to Canberra anti-vaccine mandate protest in Australia was organized on GiveSendGo, among other platforms.[57]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Press". GiveSendGo. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Taylor, Stephanie (March 3, 2022). "GiveSendGo co-founder says Ottawa protests were 'peaceful,' Trudeau should have met truckers". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on December 8, 2022. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  3. ^ Rabey, Steve (July 6, 2023). "Christian crowdfunder GiveSendGo supports believers, Proud Boys and antisemites". Baptist News Global. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Bergengruen, Vera; Wilson, Chris (March 4, 2022). "Crowdfunding Site for Right-Wing Causes Generates Windfall". Time. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Lavin, Talia (April 5, 2021). "Crowdfunding Hate in the Name of Christ". The Nation. Retrieved February 13, 2022. Along with their sister Emmalie, they founded GiveSendGo in 2014 because, as a 2017 blog post put it, 'Gofundme has taken a stance against Christians and has been taking down campaigns that they did not agree with.'
  6. ^ a b Kimball, Whitney (January 11, 2021). "PayPal Dumps GiveSendGo, the 'Christian' Crowdfunding Site Used By Proud Boys". Gizmodo. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  7. ^ Kunzelman, Michael (May 28, 2023). "Jan. 6 rioters are raking in thousands in donations. Now the US is coming after their haul". Associated Press. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  8. ^ a b c Wilson, Jason (April 10, 2021). "Proud Boys and other far-right groups raise millions via Christian funding site". The Guardian. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
  9. ^ a b c d Brittain, Amy; Willman, David (January 18, 2021). "'A place to fund hope': How Proud Boys and other fringe groups found refuge on a Christian fundraising website". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  10. ^ a b c Thalen, Mikael (February 15, 2022). "Donation site used by Freedom Convoy suffers 3rd data leak in two weeks". The Daily Dot. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
  11. ^ Smith, Brenna; Guynn, Jessica; Carless, Will (March 28, 2021). "Insurrection fundraiser: Capitol riot extremists, Trump supporters raise money for lawyer bills online". USA Today. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  12. ^ a b Wilson, Jason (April 16, 2021). "US police and public officials donated to Kyle Rittenhouse, data breach reveals". The Guardian. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
  13. ^ a b Vigdor, Neil (April 22, 2021). "Officer Who Gave $25 to Kyle Rittenhouse's Defense Is Fired". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
  14. ^ Carless, Will (May 4, 2021). "Proud Boys saw wave of contributions from Chinese diaspora before Capitol attack". USA Today. Retrieved May 6, 2021.
  15. ^ Smith, Brenna (June 4, 2021). "GiveSendGo data: Koch family member donated to crowdfunding campaign claiming election fraud". USA Today. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  16. ^ Carless, Will; Guynn, Jessica (January 31, 2023). "Exclusive: Extremists raised $6.2 million on crowdfunding websites in 'heyday' of financing". USA Today. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  17. ^ "ADL Crowdfunding Report: How Bigots and Extremists Collect and Use Millions in Online Donations" (PDF). Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism. January 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  18. ^ Guynn, Jessica; Carless, Will (February 23, 2023). "What is Treasury Department doing to stop extremists from crowdfunding? Democrats ask Yellen". USA Today. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  19. ^ a b "Christian fundraising site platforms neo-Nazis, white supremacists". The Jerusalem Post. March 25, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  20. ^ Makuch, Ben (March 23, 2023). "Christian Crowdfunding Site Hosting Neo-Nazi Trying to Build Whites-Only Community". Vice News. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
  21. ^ Dickinson, Tim (August 22, 2023). "A Christian Crowdfunding Site Has a White-Power Problem". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  22. ^ Bergengruen, Vera (January 31, 2023). "How Extremists Raised More than $6 Million On Crowdfunding Sites". Time. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  23. ^ Gilbert, David (January 5, 2021). "The Proud Boys Are Raking In Donations from a Christian Crowdfunding Site". Vice. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  24. ^ Denkinson, Katherine (January 28, 2022). "GiveSendGo: Christ, Cash, and Conspiracy Theories". Logically. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  25. ^ Dalton, Ben (May 17, 2022). "The Evolution of the Tech and Fundraising Platforms for Extremists Kicked Off the Regular Internet". Slate. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  26. ^ Yang, Yunkang (October 14, 2022). "Alex Jones' lawsuit losses are not enough". NBC News. Retrieved March 11, 2024.
  27. ^ Bogggioni, Tom (August 31, 2020). "Christian fundraising site has raised over $250,000 for accused Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse". Salon.com. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  28. ^ Stone, Roxanne (August 31, 2020). "Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo defends decision to host campaign for Kyle Rittenhouse". Religion News Service. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  29. ^ Cohen, Rebecca (November 19, 2021). "GoFundMe explains why it removed fundraisers for Kyle Rittenhouse's legal fees". Insider.com. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  30. ^ Dickson, EJ (August 27, 2020). "Following Scrutiny, Facebook Blocks Searches for Alleged Kenosha Shooter's Name". Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  31. ^ Martin, Ken (September 4, 2020). "Discover blocks donations to site raising money for Kyle Rittenhouse defense". Fox Business. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  32. ^ Sommer, Will (December 11, 2020). "How a Christian Crowdfunding Site Became the Go-to Page for Trumpist Rage". The Daily Beast. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  33. ^ Kirkpatrick, David D. (January 16, 2021). "Before the Capitol Riot, Calls for Cash and Talk of Revolution". The New York Times. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  34. ^ Singh, Kanishka (January 12, 2021). "PayPal blocks site that helped raise funds for those who attended Capitol violence". Reuters. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  35. ^ Wilson, Teddy (April 11, 2022). "Give Send Riot: Jan. 6 Defendants Have Raised More than $3.5 Million Through Christian Crowdfunding Website". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  36. ^ Ballhaus, Rebecca; Safdar, Khadeeja; Ramachandran, Shalini (June 16, 2021). "Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, Forceful on Jan. 6, Privately Are in Turmoil". The Wall Street Journal.
  37. ^ Solon, Olivia; Miranda, Leticia (January 13, 2021). "'Too little, too late': Extremism experts criticize payment companies". NBC News. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  38. ^ "Oath Keepers and the Business of Extremism". The Wall Street Journal. June 28, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  39. ^ McIntire, Mike; Keller, Michael H. (February 15, 2022). "Canadians are responsible for roughly half of the money raised online for the trucker convoy, leaked data shows". The New York Times. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
  40. ^ Wade, Matthew; Baker, Stephanie A.; Walsh, Michael J. (September 24, 2023). "Crowdfunding platforms as conduits for ideological struggle and extremism: On the need for greater regulation and digital constitutionalism". Policy & Internet. doi:10.1002/poi3.369. ISSN 1944-2866.
  41. ^ Nelson, Joshua Q. (February 9, 2022). "GiveSendGo CFO rips GoFundMe for blocking Canada trucker donations: 'Stands in the face of all freedoms'". Fox News. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  42. ^ "Ontario court freezes access to funds raised for protest convoy on GiveSendGo platform". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. February 10, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
  43. ^ Klawans, Justin; Fung, Katherine (February 15, 2022). "GiveSendGo Risks Breaking Anti-Terrorism Laws by Funding Truckers' Protests". Newsweek. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
  44. ^ Murphy, Paul P.; Newton, Paula (February 11, 2022). "Crowd fundraising site says they will defy Canadian court order to stop disbursing funds to convoy protesters". CNN. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  45. ^ Kirkup, Kristy; Curry, Bill (March 3, 2022). "Co-founder of Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo says his company would allow fundraising for KKK if activity was legal". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  46. ^ Connolly, Amanda (March 3, 2022). "GoFundMe, GiveSendGo defend handling of convoy blockade fundraising campaigns". Global News. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  47. ^ "Currently listed entities". Public Safety Canada. Government of Canada. February 3, 2021. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  48. ^ Whittaker, Zack (February 8, 2022). "Donation site for Ottawa truckers' 'Freedom Convoy' protest exposed donors' data". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
  49. ^ Faife, Corin (February 14, 2022). "Funding site linked to Canadian trucker protest hacked, donor info leaked online". The Verge. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
  50. ^ a b Gregg, Aaron (February 14, 2022). "Crowdfunding site for Canadian 'Freedom Convoy' disabled in possible hack". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  51. ^ a b c Gilbert, David (February 14, 2022). "Hackers Just Leaked the Names of 92,000 'Freedom Convoy' Donors". Vice News. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
  52. ^ Thompson, Elizabeth; Rocha, Roberto; Leung, Albert (February 14, 2022). "Hacked convoy data shows more than half of donations came from U.S." CBC News. Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
  53. ^ Jackson, Hannah (February 22, 2022). "OPP launches internal conduct investigation after members appear to have donated to convoy". Global News. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
  54. ^ "Opinion | Shutting Down Support for the Truckers". Wall Street Journal. February 16, 2022. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  55. ^ Stabile, Angelica (February 7, 2022). "'Canceled in the USA': Dan Bongino spotlights Americans dropped by woke culture". Fox News. Retrieved February 11, 2024.
  56. ^ Thalen, Mikael (February 24, 2022). "GiveSendGo hit with yet another data breach as more donors' personal info exposed". The Daily Dot. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
  57. ^ Wilson, Cam (February 16, 2022). "Bangladeshi Facebook accounts: the foreign links behind convoy protests". Crikey. Archived from the original on February 17, 2022. Retrieved February 21, 2022.

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