Gofundme is a for-profit crowdfunding platform; it is an independent and registered public charity. Since its inception in 2010, the brand has facilitated the raising of more than $5 billion online. Through GoFundMe, individuals can start a funds drive, manage it, engage with supporters of the fundraiser, and also help individuals willing to support initiatives discover worthy initiatives to support.
SWOT analysis is a worthy tool for every venture that seeks to grow in the market. It will GoFundMe and other businesses discover their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats so that they leverage these insights to get a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Gofundme – At a Glance
| Name | GoFundMe |
| Website | www.gofundme.com |
| Founders | Brad Damphousse, Andrew Ballester |
| Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O.) | Dan Schulman |
| Headquarters | Redwood City, California, United States |
| Year Founded | May 10, 2010 |
| Key Products/Services | fundraising |
| Key Competitors | Fundly, Givebutter, Bonfire, Snowball, 99Pledges, Indiegogo, |
Strengths of Gofundme
A strong Product
GoFundMe’s product model offers a strong solution for the needs of its users. The product has an easy-to-use platform both on the donor front and on the behind scenes front. With this great functionality, the platform is able to process about 30 donations every minute. GoFundMe’s product has the following outstanding features.
The Donate Button widget enables individual users seeking to fundraise to embed a campaign on their blog or personal website. In this way, individual fundraising is able to drive more traffic back to the GoFundMe page.
GoFundme Group Functionality: this functionality allows for groups like families, colleagues, friends, clubs, and teams among others drive fundraising together. Each of the participants is able to drive the campaign by embedding it on their various websites, track the progress of the campaign, and thank the donors individually that have donated towards the achievement of the common goal.
Goal Thermometers: these allow for organizers of the fundraiser to set visible goals and the website allows them to incorporate a fundraising thermometer that updates all participants in real-time the progress of the campaign upon each donation. This strategy immensely helps when it comes to leveraging gamification strategies and challenging more donations.
Huge Traffic and User Base
GoFundMe has more than a billion visits every year which trickles down to over 31 hits for every second that passes on the platform. This hug traffic is critical in ensuring more visibility and more sharing of the campaigns so as to get more donors participating in the fundraising. It is essentially these huge numbers that drive the success of every fundraiser on the platform.
It is among the Leading Fundraiser Platform
GoFundMe is among the leaders in the online fundraising space. More people launch GoFundMe funds drives as compared to other competitor platforms. Being the leading platform, many people in need of help in fundraising are likely to opt for GoFundMe over other sites.
Integration with Social Media; a Strong Social Media Presence
The GoFundMe platform is integrated with various other social media platforms. The majority of the platform’s users are average of young age compared to older people; this informs social media targeting.
Social media targetting causes a ripple effect of in-traffic generation and spreading awareness for fundraising. Users can take advantage of this integration to widen their scope of fundraising thus increasing chances of success. Analysis shows that each share of GoFundMe on social media translates to an average donation of $13.
Weaknesses of Gofundme
Not a First Entrant in the Market
GoFundMe is not a first entrant in the crowdfunding space online therefore does not have the benefits of a first-mover into the market. This, therefore, limits the brand’s expansion space since it has already captured the market by early entrants in the market.
Presence of Fraudulent Activities on the Platform
While there are many needy cases around the globe that are worthy of being crowd-funded, there are always fraudulent individuals who fake their stories in order to take advantage of the generosity of donors. Any such case present on GoFundMe ends up diminishing the credibility of the brand.
It is however a challenge to flag such down in real-time. GoFundMe needs to continue up to its game so as to increase its credibility index for its users.
Unauthorized Use of Cards on the Platform
When a GoFundMe fundraiser seeks to raise funds and shares their need with donors, there are instances where donors donate without the permission of the cardholders. These unauthorized donations may result in chargebacks and the need for refunds.
It is important that the company has taken note of this happening. There is every need for the brand to accelerate innovations and controls on the platform to ensure they prevent such occurrences.
Imitation of Strategies and Low Barriers to Entry
The online fundraising space has low barriers to entry and the strategies needed for running the fundraisers can easily be imitated. To some degree, GoFundMe has borrowed from others in the industry. There is a need for the brand to invest in innovation so that it can differentiate itself from the competition.
Gaps in Customer Experience
GoFundMe has great customer reviews and ratings that average above 4 stars. However, going through the reviews, there are gaps that customers voice out in their reviews and ratings. The majority of the concerns regard to lack of superior customer service.
This gives competitors with superior customer experience a better competitive edge over GoFundMe.
Opportunities of Gofundme
Technology in Innovation
Technology has accelerated innovation across all industries. Technological innovation enhances efficiency and effectiveness. This defines a better competitive edge in the online space and across the globe. GoFundMe needs to take advantage of technological innovation to increase its cutting edge in the marketplace.
Increase Market Reach Globally
While GoFundMe has a remarkable customer base and outreach, it has a huge market yet to be reached. Thankfully, the internet world gives the brand access to more than 4 billion internet users.
While there are reservations with donations due to cases of alleged needy cases abusing the opportunities, there are still many kind people who want to donate to worthy causes; and there are still many people weighed down with needs that could be assisted through GoFundMe drives.
Threats of Gofundme
Competition
The online fundraising space has an increased number of both established companies and new entrants. There is therefore every need for GoFundMe to up its competitive advantages and strengths in order to stand out against the huge competition in the market.
Change in Government Regulation
There are often changes in policies and regulations that govern the different industries in the economy. In the event of the government instituting policies that would adversely affect the online fundraising platform, then it becomes a threat to GoFundMe.
There are instances where a change in regulation threw out businesses from operating in the market. There are also instances where the government has increased taxation, this eats more into the company’s profitability.
Technological Advances
History testifies that novel inventions have birthed new businesses and rendered obsolete existing ones. In the event another entity comes out with a disruptive technology or idea in an online fundraising platform, then GoFundMe together with other players in the industry who are using old strategies may be rendered obsolete.
This calls for investment in research and development alongside innovations in the online fundraising space.
Conclusion
GoFundMe has a strong product given it offers solutions to a pertinent need in society. There is however huge competition in the industry that threatens the brand’s survival. GoFundMe has to increasingly invest in technology to gain a competitive edge in the market.
