A proposed class action accuses GoFundMe of designing its donation checkout so that a tip defaults on rather than off, raising the amount donors pay without a clear, affirmative choice. Donors Sandra Donovan of Illinois and Ebony Baker of Georgia filed the complaint on August 6, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, case number 1:26-cv-09423.
The suit, *Donovan v. GoFundMe, Inc.*, seeks to represent donor classes in Illinois and Georgia. It centers on one specific mechanic: a sliding tip scale that starts at a preset percentage and stays there unless the donor notices it and drags it down.
Official resources:
- Read the original report from Ny — Use this primary source to review the complete report.
- Read the official guidance from Illinoisattorneygeneral — Use this primary source to verify the official guidance.
Table of Contents
- What the Complaint Says Happens at Checkout
- What Laws the Lawsuit Invokes
- How This Connects to the State Attorneys General Letter
- What GoFundMe Has Said
- Who Might Be Affected and What to Watch For
What the Complaint Says Happens at Checkout
The complaint alleges GoFundMe's checkout page automatically pre-selects a tip, reported at 17.5% of the donation amount, and adds it to the total unless the donor affirmatively moves a sliding scale down to zero, according to the complaint. Plaintiffs call this a "negative option" consent scheme, meaning the charge happens by default and the burden falls on the donor to opt out rather than opt in. The suit also alleges the tip disclosure appears in small font below the main donation-amount field, where it is easy to miss, according to the same complaint.
A donor focused on entering a $50 or $100 gift may not notice the slider at all and ends up paying more than the number they typed. A second allegation concerns how GoFundMe describes its own costs. The complaint alleges the checkout page advertises a "0% platform fee" for the organizers running a fundraiser, while GoFundMe separately collects transaction fees plus the default donor tip — a combination plaintiffs say misrepresents what the platform actually charges, per the complaint. The "0% fee" claim is technically about the organizer's side of the transaction, not the donor's, which is part of what plaintiffs argue makes it misleading in context.
What Laws the Lawsuit Invokes
The complaint brings claims under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act and the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act, according to the case filing summary. Both statutes let consumers sue over business practices that are deceptive or unfair, even without proving the kind of intentional fraud that older common-law claims require.
Plaintiffs are seeking damages, restitution of the tip amounts allegedly taken without proper consent, and a court order forcing GoFundMe to redesign the checkout's tip mechanism. As of the available record, GoFundMe has not filed a public response to the complaint, and no court has certified a class — meaning the case is not yet decided and the allegations remain unproven claims.
How This Connects to the State Attorneys General Letter
The private lawsuit is not the only scrutiny GoFundMe's tip design has drawn. On March 3, 2026, a bipartisan coalition of 21 state attorneys general and charity regulators sent GoFundMe a letter stating that public reports showed a default donor tip of about 16.5% that goes to GoFundMe rather than to the fundraiser or the charity involved. That letter went further than the tip issue.
It demanded that GoFundMe, within 14 days, prove it had removed donation pages the company had reportedly created for charities — over 1.4 million of them — without those charities' knowledge, and clearly disclose to donors who actually receives the money and whether fees or tips apply, according to the same letter. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul's office separately demanded proof that GoFundMe removed all what it called "plagiarized" charity pages using organizations' names and information without authorization, according to the Illinois Attorney General's office. A client alert from law firm Crowell & Moring notes that the AG letter's donor-tip and disclosure concerns sit alongside the private class action's consent-based legal theory but are legally distinct from it — one is a regulatory demand, the other is a civil lawsuit — and that both signal broader scrutiny of fee transparency across crowdfunding platforms generally, per the firm's alert.
What GoFundMe Has Said
GoFundMe's stated position is that the tip is optional and that donors can move the slider down to 0% if they choose not to leave one, according to reporting from Downbeach.com on March 4, 2026. As of that reporting, the company had not issued a public response to the Donovan complaint, nor confirmed full compliance with the attorneys general's 14-day demand.
That gap — between "the option exists" and "the option is easy to find and use" — is exactly what the lawsuit disputes. The company's defense rests on the slider being present and functional; the plaintiffs' claim rests on how the slider is positioned, sized, and defaulted at the moment someone is trying to complete a donation.
Who Might Be Affected and What to Watch For
Anyone who donated through GoFundMe's checkout and did not notice or adjust the tip slider may have paid more than the amount they intended to give. The named plaintiffs are Illinois and Georgia residents, and the proposed classes are currently limited to donors in those two states, though the underlying practice described in the complaint is alleged to be the same checkout flow used nationally. A few practical things to watch:.
- Check past GoFundMe donation receipts for a separate "tip" line above or below the donation total.
- No class has been certified, so there is no claim form or settlement to file yet.
- GoFundMe's own account of the slider being adjustable to 0% means reviewing a receipt, not assuming a refund is owed, is the first useful step.
- Future filings in the Northern District of Illinois case, 1:26-cv-09423, will determine whether the case proceeds past the complaint stage.