GoFundMe Promises To Refund $20 Million in Border Wall Donations After Owner Changes Campaign
BY KARISTA BALDWIN
JANUARY 13, 2019 AT 9:42AM
Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print
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 Hill reports that 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.
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 created a nonprofit corporation called “We Build the Wall, Inc.” to receive the GoFundMe contributions instead.
He claimed that his corporation was “better equipped than our own government to use the donated funds to build an actual wall on the southern border.”
TRENDING: ‘Late Night’ Host Seth Meyers in Trouble After Show’s Stomach-Churning Joke About Dead Americans
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.”
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.
https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/gofundme-promises-refund-20-million-border-wall-donations-owner-changes-campaign/?utm_source=push&utm_medium=westernjournalism&utm_content=2019-01-13&utm_campaign=manualpost