Medical costs top crowdfunding donations in AP-NORC poll, study finds

Quintin Sharpe said he donated more than $100 to a GoFundMe campaign after a former classmate’s father was “blindsided” in a motor vehicle accident and the money was intended to cover hospital bills.

Sharpe, a 27-year-old wealth manager from southeast Wisconsin, said he sees crowdfunding as “the easiest way to help,” describing the process as faster than other giving routes. He said crowdfunding can be “a little bit more expedient because there’s less reporting,” and that funds go “directly to one site,” without “to go through a board” or requiring approval from “a lot of people.”

Sharpe’s account was among responses in an AP-NORC poll that found about 2 in 10 U.S. adults donated money to a crowdfunding campaign last year. The poll also found that medical expenses and health care causes were the most commonly supported category, with about 4 in 10 donors saying their last donation fell into that category.

Participation in crowdfunding still lagged behind more formal giving, the poll found. While about 7 in 10 Americans said they made a charitable contribution in 2025, the share who said they had donated to crowdfunding campaigns was far lower, and the poll’s results suggested many donations were relatively small. It found about 6 in 10 crowdfunding donors gave $50 or less the last time they supported a campaign.

Karla Galdamez, a former teacher from California, said she supported her first GoFundMe after a fellow educator died by suicide. She said she knew him “a little bit,” and that a group of teachers started a GoFundMe so they could collect donations for his family; she said “The word spreads pretty fast like that,” as people share links, adding, “And it works.”

The poll results also reflected the outsized role that health costs play in prompting people to seek help online, including when patients face what campaigns describe as a “long road to recovery.” Jeremy Snyder, a bioethicist who researches medical crowdfunding, said the pattern reflects a persistent gap between what insurance covers and what health care costs, and that people may find it easier to seek help for medical expenses than other types of spending.

Snyder also said he fears more patients may be driven to crowdfunding after the expiration of enhanced tax credits that helped reduce the cost of health insurance for most Affordable Care Act enrollees. “Costs keep going up,” Snyder said. “Coverage is still a struggle and probably getting worse.”

Crowdfunding donors also supported memorials or funerals, groceries or other daily necessities, veterinary expenses or animal causes, and natural disaster relief, the poll found. The AP-NORC survey additionally showed that Americans— including those who donate—had reservations about whether crowdfunding sites charge reasonable service fees and whether campaigns use money responsibly.

The poll found 44% of U.S. adults were at least “somewhat” confident that crowdfunding sites charge reasonable service fees. Maria Barrett, 68, said she dislikes paying fees when people are in need, telling the AP: “I just think it’s kind of crappy that people are in need and they charge a service fee.” She added, “There ought to be a way to do that without it. But I guess there isn’t.”

Snyder said there can be a “pervasive sense” that platforms have “mandatory fees” beyond payment processing, even though they often do not. In the case of GoFundMe, the article said the platform takes 2.9% plus 30 cents off individuals’ U.S. donations and solicits optional tips, while GiveSendGo, a Christian alternative, takes 2.7% and 30 cents.

GoFundMe vice president of communications Sarah Peck said in a statement that the company’s model is designed to maximize how much help goes directly to people and nonprofits in need, and to give donors a choice about whether to contribute anything additional for services. Peck said: “GoFundMe’s model is intentionally designed to ensure the maximum amount of help goes directly to the people and nonprofits who need help, while giving donors the choice of whether to contribute anything additional for our services,”.

The AP-NORC poll found that more than half of U.S. adults were at least “somewhat” confident that people who raise money through crowdfunding sites really need the money and were at least “somewhat” confident that those fundraisers use money responsibly. At the same time, it found that only about 1 in 10 were “very” or “extremely” confident in those areas.

Barrett said she donates when she knows the organizers or has researched the campaign. She described a recent donation to a woman with brain cancer, saying she knew of the situation through a son’s high school connection, and she said she learned about a house fire because it happened in her town. Barrett also said she sometimes sees fundraiser goals that feel “a little astronomical,” but added that she has seen campaigns work, including after her son died when someone started a campaign on her family’s behalf.

Barrett said her greater concern was the conditions that push families to seek help this way. She said: “I just wish it wasn’t so difficult for people to get help in this country without having to crowdsource and stuff.” She added that a single illness or death can “wipe out a family,” and said “that just doesn’t seem right in this country that’s supposed to be the best country in the world.”

The AP-NORC poll surveyed 1,146 adults from Dec. 4-8 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, and the margin of sampling error for adults overall was plus or minus 4 percentage points.