🤝 Meet Tim Cadogan. He is the CEO of GoFundMe and was named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world last year. We sat down with Tim on a recent trip to Toronto to talk about GoFundMe’s presence in Canada, how the organization has bucked the trend of declining charitable donations, and how it has grown to raise over $40 billion worldwide.
How has GoFundMe’s presence grown in Canada over the years?
Canada was our first market outside of the U.S., actually. We just hit a pretty big milestone — we reached $1 billion over the last five years. Part of my job is to go around our different countries and do three things: meet customers, meet folks like you to tell their stories and our story, and meet public officials. It’s important for us to ensure people in power understand how GoFundMe works, especially in case of a crisis in their jurisdiction. They need to know that constituents may use GoFundMe and how we can partner with them as a resource in response.
I’m going to Ottawa to meet MPs and public safety officials. We’re meeting the MP for the area that includes Tumbler Ridge, where the tragic shooting recently happened. A lot of money has been raised for that — about $4.5 million — including a well-known fundraiser for a 12-year-old girl named Maya. It’s incredible to see that level of support, much of it through GoFundMe.
What kind of causes are you mostly seeing Canadians put money behind?
It’s a wide range, but medical and health-related fundraisers are typically the largest category. That makes sense because those are some of the most significant moments in people’s lives, they’re life and death situations where people feel most compelled to help.
We’re also seeing growth in business-related fundraising. For example, a Toronto bookstore, Mabel’s Fables, had to relocate after their landlord decided to redevelop the area. They raised about $140,000 on GoFundMe, which helped them move and relocate 120,000 books. Businesses like that often have strong community ties, so people who grew up with them feel a personal connection.
To give you a sense of scale, last year there were 2.3 million donations in Canada — about 6,500 donations per day. GoFundMe has been in Canada since 2013, our first international market after the U.S., so awareness has grown significantly.
You started at GoFundMe in March 2020. How did getting thrown into the fire of the pandemic on Day 1 shape the way you run the organization today?
It was quite an experience. My first week was spent preparing to meet teams across San Diego, LA, and San Francisco. By the end of that week, we realized the pandemic was serious and transitioned to remote work. What I thought might last a few weeks ended up lasting over a year.
Our challenges were minor compared to what people were facing, but we saw demand for the platform skyrocket. One unexpected trend was the surge in small business fundraisers — restaurants, bars, music venues, all closed with employees furloughed. We had never seen that volume before.
There was also a shift in giving behavior. Some people had less ability to give due to job loss, but others felt a strong urge to help during such an unprecedented time. In crises like that, we often see more giving, not less.
There's been a decline in overall charitable donations in Canada over the past few years, but not so much on GoFundMe. Do you think there's something different about the psychology of donating on GoFundMe versus to a larger charity organization?
The key difference is that people are giving directly to individuals. Typically, 80–90% of donations come from someone the recipient knows, like family, friends, or acquaintances. That emotional connection is powerful. I don’t love the term “crowdfunding” because it implies strangers. In reality, it’s more like friends-and-family fundraising. That personal connection drives giving.
We focus on the concept of “help” rather than “giving.” Giving is one-directional, but help is relational. Someone asks for help, others respond, and that creates a connection. That dynamic repeats thousands of times across the platform.
Is it emotionally draining being around so many tragedies?
Surprisingly, it’s the opposite. The situations can be tragic, but the presence of help makes them better. There’s no situation that isn’t improved by people coming together to support one another. Many users tell us they expected to raise money, but what impacted them most was the emotional and psychological support. When people are struggling, they often feel alone. Asking for help can reveal that they’re not.
Personally, the most impactful experience for me was the fires in Altadena, L.A., where I live. Two-thirds of the town — about 6,000 homes — were destroyed, displacing around 30,000 people. My house survived, but many neighbors lost everything.
Through GoFundMe, we raised over a quarter of a billion dollars in less than a month and distributed it to 10,000 families. While it couldn’t fix everything, it helped people with immediate needs like rent and recovery. Seeing that impact firsthand was powerful.
Is there a cause that you think people are going to be raising money for over the next five to 10 years that isn't necessarily popular right now?
I think we’ll see more fundraising tied to breakthroughs in health, particularly gene therapy and AI-driven medical advancements. I recently met a family whose child had a rare genetic disorder. They raised nearly $2 million and helped develop a gene therapy that is now helping other children as well. These breakthroughs require funding at every level — individual, philanthropic, and institutional. But the individual is a way to tell those stories and to give some agency to families.
What would be your number one hope for what GoFundMe can accomplish over the next decade?
Our biggest goal is to normalize asking for help. Most people are willing to help, but very few are comfortable asking for it. It’s a deeply ingrained human challenge. If you ask a room of people who like helping, almost everyone raises their hand. Ask who likes asking for help, and only a few do. But asking is what enables help to happen.
We’ve made progress — about 20% of Canadians have used GoFundMe, and around 8.5 million people in Canada have engaged with the platform. Ten years ago, most people hadn’t heard of it. Now it’s becoming normalized, similar to how services like Uber. When we were growing up, one of the things that your parents always said was never get in a stranger's car. Now, it's the new normal.
Asking for help is not exactly the same. We've had $40 billion raised around the world, but there’s more room to grow.
This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
