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GiveSendGo
Type of site
Charity
Available in18 languages
URLgivesendgo.com
RegistrationOptional
Current statusOnline

GiveSendGo is a Christian crowdfunding website founded in 2014.[1]

The website was founded as a response to a perception of GoFundMe being Anti-Christian after taking down campaigns that were against GoFundMe's Terms of Service, particularly campaigns relating to the alt-right and white supremacists.[1][2] Since its founding, the site has received increased traffic following the removal of campaigns from other crowdfunding websites, and as a result, gained a reputation for facilitating the funding of far-right activists and extremist groups. This reputation has been criticized as being counter to its Christian mission statement.[1]

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.[3]

Controversies

Kyle Rittenhouse

A GiveSendGo campaign for Kyle Rittenhouse raised over $250,000,[4][5] while similar campaigns on GoFundMe and Fundly were removed.[6] In response, Discover blocked transactions toward GiveSendGo.[7] 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.[8]

2021 United States Capitol attack

PayPal suspended payments to GiveSendGo during a campaign to raise funds[clarification needed] following the attack on the US Capitol.[9]

Canadian convoy protests 2022

givesendgone.wtf
The hacked GiveSendGo website, which contained a data dump with personal information of donors

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 $8 million on the GiveSendGo platform.[10]

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.[11][12] 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.[13]

During parliamentary questioning in March 2022, co-founder Jacob Wells stated that GiveSendGo would permit the Ku Klux Klan and the Proud Boys to fundraise on their website, provided the activity was legal.[14][15] Since February 2021, the Proud Boys have been designated as a terrorist group by the Canadian government.[16]

Data security

A report by TechCrunch on February 8, 2022 noted that a security lapse had exposed the personal information of donors.[17][18]

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.[19]

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."[19]

A data breach on February 13, 2022 was reported by Vice News.[20] 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.[20] 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.[21][20] 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.[22]

A data breach on February 15, 2022 was reported by The Daily Dot.[23] 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.

On February 24, 2022, another data breach was reported by The Daily Dot.[24] 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.[25]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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.'
  2. ^ Wilson, Jason (April 10, 2021). "Proud Boys and other far-right groups raise millions via Christian funding site". The Guardian. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
  3. ^ Denkinson, Katherine (January 28, 2022). "GiveSendGo: Christ, Cash, and Conspiracy Theories". Logically. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  4. ^ Bogggioni, Tom (August 31, 2020). "Christian fundraising site has raised over $250,000 for accused Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse". Salon. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  5. ^ Stone, Roxanne (September 2020). "Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo defends decision to host campaign for Kyle Rittenhouse". Religion News. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  6. ^ Dickson, EJ (August 27, 2020). "Following Scrutiny, Facebook Blocks Searches for Alleged Kenosha Shooter's Name". Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  7. ^ Martin, Ken (September 4, 2020). "Discover blocks donations to site raising money for Kyle Rittenhouse defense". Fox Business. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ "Ontario court freezes access to funds raised for protest convoy on GiveSendGo platform". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. February 10, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
  12. ^ Klawans, Justin; Fung, Katherine (February 15, 2022). "GiveSendGo Risks Breaking Anti-Terrorism Laws by Funding Truckers' Protests". Newsweek. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ Taylor, Stephanie (March 3, 2022). "GiveSendGo co-founder says Ottawa protests were 'peaceful,' Trudeau should have met truckers". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  16. ^ "Currently listed entities". Public Safety Canada. February 3, 2021. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  17. ^ Whittaker, Zack (February 8, 2022). "Donation site for Ottawa truckers' 'Freedom Convoy' protest exposed donors' data". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
  18. ^ Faife, Corin (February 14, 2022). "Funding site linked to Canadian trucker protest hacked, donor info leaked online". The Verge. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
  19. ^ a b Gregg, Aaron (February 14, 2022). "Crowdfunding site for Canadian 'Freedom Convoy' disabled in possible hack". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ Elizabeth Thompson; Roberto Rocha; Albert Leung (February 14, 2022). "Hacked convoy data shows more than half of donations came from U.S." CBC News. Toronto ON: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
  22. ^ Jackson, Hannah (February 22, 2022). "OPP launches internal conduct investigation after members appear to have donated to convoy". Global News. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
  23. ^ 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.
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ 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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