(NewsNation) — GiveSendGo has been making headlines recently with the fundraisers that have been made, including for a Texas teen accused of stabbing and killing another teen at a track meet.
GiveSendGo was created in 2014 by three siblings, according to its website. The siblings eventually launched the beta version of the site in early 2015, with a public launch party in October 2015.
“After much prayer, discussion, and counsel, a decision was made. GiveSendGo was created… not to take one side or another politically, but in the middle of a divided political culture, we were to be focused on the very reason we started GiveSendGo, to share the Hope of Jesus through crowdfunding to everyone who comes to our platform,” the website’s About Us page states.
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GiveSendGo differs from other platforms, like GoFundMe, because it doesn’t charge processing fees to use its platform. Instead, it uses voluntary donations “from Givers and Goers.”
Platforms like GoFundMe charge processing fees. In GiveSendGo’s terms and conditions, it states that the person who created the campaign has to be verified by the company before any funds are released.
The company also doesn’t decide who can put a fundraiser on its site, unlike GoFundMe, which took down the fundraiser for Karmelo Anthony, the teen accused of stabbing another teen at a track meet. GiveSendGo has faced backlash for keeping up fundraisers for Anthony, as well as a Minnesota mom who allegedly called a child a racial slur.
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The co-CEO of GiveSendGo, Heather Wilson, recently defended the company’s decision to leave the fundraiser for Anthony up. On social media, she said GiveSendGo is seeing “similar outrage from the right as we once did from the left” when similar campaigns were created for Kyle Rittenhouse and Daniel Penny.
“A few key things to consider: 1. In each of these high-profile cases, someone tragically lost their life,” Wilson wrote. “2. In each case, there was no mystery around who was involved in the incident.”
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There have been GiveSendGo fundraisers created for Anthony’s family as well as Metcalf’s family. In her post, Wilson said that, from the website’s founding, it opted not to determine “who deserves a defense.”
“That’s the role of our justice system,” Wilson wrote. “If we truly believe in consequences, let’s make sure they come through due process — not mob outrage. Let the facts come out. Let the courts decide. Let us remain consistent.”
