$2 Million Boston Victims: Crowdfunding Sites Raise Donations, But Donors Should Watch Out For Scams

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, crowdfunding websites have seen a flood of some 23,000 pledges donating over $2 million from people seeking to help victims of the tragedy, NBC News reported. At GoFundMe, 25 separate campaigns have generated donations of over $1.5 million; a GiveForward campaign has netted almost $600,000. A third site, YouCaring, joins the other two as the most popular. All three sites say they vet people who install fundraising accounts for the victims and respond quickly to signs of suspicious activity.

"We'll suspend and investigate the fundraiser after one flag," Ethan Austin, co-founder of GiveForward, told NBC.

These sites and other like it are largely modeled after Kickstarter.com, a site dedicated to raising money for creative projects. A user requests approval to set up an account, organizers review the request, and if it's approved, donated funds typically reach the recipients within three to five days.

YouCaring does not charge a transaction fee, though it asks donors to contribute extra money to run the site. GoFundMe gets a 5 percent cut off all money raised. Another 2.9 percent as well as 30 cents per transaction from billing fees is charged through WePay or PayPal. Altogether, it ends up being about 8 percent. GiveForward takes 7 percent, including billing fees, but gives donors the option of covering those on top of their donation.

Brad Damphousse, chief executive of GoFundMe, says that the nature of the Internet helps police crowdfunding sites. "There's so many more eyeballs on these campaigns," he told NBC. "If you're a bad steward on the Internet, word travels fast."

But experts in charitable fraud are advising caution when it comes to using crowdfunding sites to donate money, saying that this sort of self-policing only works so well. Ken Berger, president and chief executive of Charity Navigator, an independent, nonprofit group that evaluates charities, recommended that people who want to donate money to victims and their families use The One Fund Boston, Inc., set up by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino. Donations to it have already reached $10 million, just a week after the attacks.

UPI.com reports that donations for Jeff Bauman, the 27-year-old who lost his legs in the attack but managed to describe the suspects while still heavily medicated in the hospital, have hit $575,000. Others who have drawn huge donations include Celeste and Sydney Corcoran, a mother and daughter from Lowell, Massachusetts (almost $500,000) and Boston newlyweds Jessica Kensky Downes and Patrick Downes ($560,000). Both the Boston couple and the Lowell mother and daughter were severely injured in the explosions.