The Social State of Giving report was designed to resonate with three critical audiences—nonprofits, creators, and everyday supporters. The idea was to map modern giving behavior, with an emphasis on social media across generations, then translate those findings into playbooks and product improvements that reduce friction between empathy and action.
In July–August 2024, we partnered with MT Deco to conduct a mixed-methods study of 1,005 U.S. adults. By blending survey data, expert interviews, and desk research, we set out with three goals:
Key findings show that younger donors lead social sharing behaviors, but those habits are spreading into older cohorts. “Impact creators” are emerging as trusted catalysts for giving. And every share matters: a GoFundMe shared 6–10 times in the first three days is twice as likely to reach its goal as one shared less frequently or later, and each new type of share can drive a 2.5x increase in visibility. These insights informed public education, nonprofit guidance, and product features that help supporters know who to share with, what to say, and how to act.
Launched with a public landing page and announcement, the report positions GoFundMe and GoFundMe Pro as trusted sources on how social media—and creators in particular—are reshaping philanthropy, and how organizations can meet supporters where they already are.
We designed a research program to illuminate how supporters learn about, talk about, and give to causes in a digital world. With MT Deco and InnovateMR, we ran a 1,005-respondent U.S. survey and layered in expert interviews and desk research. From day one, we aligned the insights with two tracks: (1) sector education (landing page, blog, key messages) and (2) product and program decisions (sharing flows, creator partnerships, nonprofit guidance).
We emphasized generational lenses (Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers) and social behaviors across discovery, sharing, trust, and donation triggers, and published a public landing page that visualizes core findings.
Findings showed that Gen Z is 10× more open than Boomers to share that they donated, and 46% of Gen Z believes people should share donations to inspire others. Roughly half of Gen Z shares causes weekly, with Millennials and Gen X sharing monthly. Forty-one percent of Gen Z reported that social content motivated them to research or donate (about 25% Millennials, 20% Gen X). We also surfaced the rise of “impact creators,” with 51% of Gen Z saying they’d trust creators to donate on their behalf.
Insights about “what to say” and “how to share” informed AI-suggested share captions and an integration with Meta to help organizers and supporters promote causes more effectively—reducing the friction between seeing a story and supporting it.
We translated research into concrete advice for nonprofits, giving them real data to advocate for building their own social programs that encourage sharing, empower micro-communities, and partnering with creators to reach trusted networks.
What’s unique about this report is how it blends rigorous research with platform intelligence and practical enablement (education + product). It reframes “influence” as impact creation—a shift supported by data that younger donors follow and act on creator recommendations—while showing these behaviors are diffusing into older generations.
Challenges & how we overcame them:
Objective 1: Educate the sector with credible, generational insights: We delivered a public report that clearly outlines how each generation discovers, shares, and donates, plus why cultural relevance matters more to younger donors; these insights were discussed in several webinars hosted for executives and audience-facing teams in the nonprofit sector.
Objective 2: Drive practical action—more sharing, more giving: We delivered guidance backed by platform insights (each share ≈ +$100 raised on average) and social behaviors (e.g., half of Gen Z shares weekly; 41% of Gen Z is motivated by social content to research/donate). These insights were paired with product updates (AI share captions; Meta integration) that reduce friction and encourage supporters to amplify causes.
Objective 3: Reframe “influence” as impact creation: We delivered a data-backed case for “impact creators” as trusted catalysts—51% of Gen Z would trust them to donate on their behalf—helping nonprofits prioritize partnerships that convert attention into support.
Objective 4: Build a Creator program of our own: We saw the data, and got started shaping out GoFundMe for Creators, and recruiting ambassadors to drive impact (we now have ~30 GoFundMe ambassadors and have developed numerous features and internal tools to empower them to raise funds for individuals, crisis funds, and nonprofits).
Success, to us, is research that changes behavior: nonprofits get smarter about social, creators lean into impact, and supporters are nudged from passive empathy to concrete action. This report advanced all three.
