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August 29, 2014

3 Ways To Mitigate A Crowdfunding PR Crisis

 

GoFundMe, the popular fundraising website, recently found itself embroiled in controversy stemming from a campaign to support Officer Darren Wilson. Wilson has been accused of shooting unarmed teen, Mike Brown, which sparked protests and outrage across the country. When protesters discovered the campaign, they took to Twitter and threatened to boycott GoFundMe unless it took down the offending campaign, citing a violation of their organizations’ Terms of Service. Although the campaign was arguably in bad taste, it did not qualify as hate speech or attempting to procure financial gain from a crime. So it was no surprise that GoFundMe allowed the campaign to stay up. However, it did post this tweet:

8.29 krysten

Protesters argued that it was not enough and vowed to never support a GoFundMe campaign again. So, what’s a brand to do in this situation? GoFundMe had nothing directly to do with the crisis in Ferguson, but found itself looped in after someone used its platform in a way others disagreed with.

Here are three suggestions for fundraising platforms or any other proxy platforms that find themselves in this situation:

1) Don’t ignore the issue: As with any crisis, ignoring the problem just makes it worse. Determine your messaging and stick to the script.

2) Create a press release, announcement or blog post addressing the issue: Disseminate this through the outlet that makes the most sense for your brand. Keep it short and sweet, explain your position without being hostile, dismissive or defensive.

3) Donate any proceeds you would receive (if applicable): GoFundMe receives 10% of all proceeds from individual campaigns. My suggestions would be that they donate those funds to a neutral, relevant cause that nearly everyone agrees on (I.e. Gun violence prevention campaigns, etc).