Stop Shadow Donation Pages

Stop Shadow Donation Pages.

Donation pages made in your name, without asking.

A Shadow Donation Page is a giving page for a nonprofit that a third party built automatically, without the nonprofit’s consent. It takes gifts in the nonprofit’s name and routes the money through an intermediary the nonprofit does not control.

From the original definition in The Rise of Shadow Donation Pages.

Is my organization affected? See the register

How it happens

What a Shadow Donation Page is, in full

1 A donor searches for the charity.

riverside food bank donate
givepages.example › charities › riverside-food-bank Donate to Riverside Food Bank
riversidefoodbank.org › donate Give to Riverside Food Bank

A platform’s page can rank above the charity’s own.

2 The page takes the gift.

Riverside Food Bank $25$50$100 Add a 17.5% tip for GivePages $8.75 Donate $58.75 This nonprofit has not claimed this page.

Built from the IRS list. The charity never signed up. The tip box comes pre-checked.

3 Fees come off first.

Donor pays $58.75 $50.00 gift $8.75 tip → the platform The gift after fees $47.10 to the fund −$1.40 card processing (2.2% + $0.30) −$1.50 platform fee (3%)

A tip, often preselected, goes to the platform. Card processing and any platform fee come off before the charity sees the gift.

4 The rest waits in a fund.

$ $47.10 FUND the charityonly if claimed elsewhereif never claimed

A fund the charity doesn’t control holds it, and may regrant it.

Illustration. Riverside Food Bank and givepages.example are invented. The rates are ones the register records: preselected tips of 15–17.5% (GoFundMe, JustGiving, Every.org), platform fees up to 10% (Donate.gg), and card processing of roughly 2–5% plus a fixed charge. Some platforms take their fee at payout instead.

A Shadow Donation Page is a third-party, off-domain giving page1 that was auto-generated2 without the nonprofit’s consent3, that accepts gifts on the org’s behalf4 while routing payouts through an intermediary5. Such pages can outrank or confuse results of the official donate page in search6.

Each numbered phrase is one check. The register shows which ones the evidence establishes for each platform. Point at a phrase to light its column.

Platforms running Shadow Donation Pages

13 platforms listed · updated from the event log

Each platform is answered against the six checks. Hover a column, or a clause in the definition, to follow one check down the list.

  • Yes Yes, and we saved dated screenshots or page captures
  • Yes, research only Yes, from our research; no saved capture yet
  • No No: the platform does not do this
  • Unclear Unclear: we looked, and the evidence does not settle it
  • Not checked Not checked yet
  • Reformed: changed its practice, still on the record

Checks 1 and 4 are baseline: they describe any donation platform, so their marks are grey and say little on their own. Pending means a platform is listed while one deciding check is still unproven; its row says what is missing. Behind a wall means the page needs a donor login or is hidden from search.

Platforms, how many nonprofit pages each has or had, the tip and fee each takes, and the six checks. Each check is answered yes, no, unclear, or not checked.
PlatformNonprofit pagesTip / fee1Off-domainbaseline2Auto-generated3No consent4Takes giftsbaseline5Intermediary6Search-indexed
Currently being watchedA dated capture, finding or platform change in the last 30 days.
RoundUp.org1.8M22 Sep 2026none$2 per card per month to RoundUp, plus transaction, processing and compliance fees of 4.8% + $1.30 per monthly contribution, all deducted before the fund grants the money on. On a $100 month the fund keeps $91.90 to grant. Off-domain: Yes Auto-generated: Yes No consent: Yes Takes gifts: Yes Intermediary: Yes Search-indexed: Yes
GiveFreelyPendingIts profiles take no gifts. Money reaches a charity later, from commissions on users' shopping, once the charity signs up with Change; under Change's policy, money for a charity that never responds can be regranted to another charity after 6 to 9 months.60.5K25 Sep 2026peak ~1M, 2026noneNo cut of affiliate commissions from its own extension, by Give Freely's account: "100% of what we get paid in affiliate commissions goes to charity" (80 to 90% through partner extensions). It also earns from ads it places on sites users visit and does not publish how that revenue is split. Off-domain: Yes Auto-generated: Yes No consent: Yes Takes gifts: No Intermediary: Yes Search-indexed: Yes
Pledge1.7M6 Oct 202615–18% tippreselectedNo technology fee on forms with a tip line; 5% deducted where there is none; $5 per disbursement of $20 or more Off-domain: Yes Auto-generated: Yes No consent: Yes Takes gifts: Yes Intermediary: Yes Search-indexed: Yes
JustGivingPendingWhether its charity pages were created without the charity's consent rests on the Alaska Attorney General's allegation and is not established.Not countedabout 15-17% suggested (adjustable)preselectedNo platform fee since 2019 Off-domain: Yes, from research only Auto-generated: Unclear No consent: Unclear Takes gifts: Yes, from research only Intermediary: Yes, from research only Search-indexed: Yes, from research only
Meta / FacebookPendingAny user can raise money for a nonprofit that never enrolled, and those fundraisers appear in Google, but Meta builds no page for the organization itself; each fundraiser is made by a user.Not countednone Off-domain: Yes, from research only Auto-generated: No No consent: Yes Takes gifts: Yes Intermediary: Yes, from research only Search-indexed: Yes
DonateStock1.5M6 Oct 2026Nonprofits pay a transaction fee: 3.9% on stock and crypto, 1.5% on DAF grants (Standard plan). Which rate is taken from a gift to an unregistered charity is not stated. Off-domain: Yes Auto-generated: Yes No consent: Yes Takes gifts: Yes Intermediary: Yes Search-indexed: Yes
Bright Funds~900K6 Oct 2026Fee cover, 5%preselectedA fundraising fee, and an administrative fee set in each employer's contract, are deducted from grants; $25 for a mailed check of $500 or more Off-domain: Yes Auto-generated: Yes No consent: Yes Takes gifts: Yes Intermediary: Yes Search-indexed: Unclear
GivelifyPendingNot established that a gift to a never-registered organization completes after sign-in, or where the money would go.~1.5M6 Oct 20262.9% + $0.30 per gift (3.5% + $0.30 on Amex), charged to the organization Off-domain: Yes Auto-generated: Yes No consent: Yes Takes gifts: Unclear Intermediary: Unclear Search-indexed: Unclear
SpotfundPendingWho receives the money is unclear. A fundraiser's page names the charity; its donate page says the gift benefits the person who created it.271.7K6 Oct 202619% tippreselected0% platform fee; 2.9% + $0.30 processing deducted from the gift Off-domain: Yes Auto-generated: Yes No consent: Unclear Takes gifts: Unclear Intermediary: Yes Search-indexed: Yes
RoutersThe funds other platforms send the money through. Each row names the platforms that route through it.
Network for GoodRoutes for Every.orgNot countednot observed3% standard; up to 5% on auto-pages, plus a $100-300 monthly subscription; donor cover-fee optional Off-domain: Yes Auto-generated: Yes No consent: Yes Takes gifts: Yes Intermediary: Yes Search-indexed: Yes
PayPal Giving FundRoutes for GoFundMe, GreatNonprofits, Meta / FacebookNot countednonePayPal Giving Fund states 0% fees (100% granted) on PayPal surfaces; partner platforms may add fees Off-domain: Yes, from research only Auto-generated: Yes No consent: Yes Takes gifts: Yes Intermediary: Yes Search-indexed: Yes, from research only
LegacyPages still live. Nothing new recorded in 30 days.
Donate.gg~2,4153 Aug 2026peak 11K, 2026not observed3% on donations made to nonprofits and campaigns on Donate.gg; 10% on donations through third-party apps and platforms built on its API Off-domain: Yes Auto-generated: Yes No consent: Yes Takes gifts: Yes Intermediary: Yes Search-indexed: Yes
GreatNonprofits2.9M25 Sep 202610% tippreselectedNo fee on the gift; the pre-filled tip goes to GreatNonprofits Off-domain: Yes Auto-generated: Yes No consent: Yes Takes gifts: Yes Intermediary: Yes Search-indexed: Yes

This site is commentary. We are not lawyers, nothing here is legal advice, and we do not allege that any platform has broken the law. The register records what each platform’s pages do, measured against the six checks.

Routers

Where the money goes next

Many platforms do not hold the gift themselves. They pass it to a fund or payout service, which decides when, and whether, the nonprofit is paid. Some of these publish no donation pages at all, so they never appear in the register above.

Routers: what each is, which platforms send it gifts, what happens to a gift nobody claims.
RouterRoutes gifts forIf the nonprofit never claims
Network for Good Donor-advised fund (For Good, formerly NFG-DAF) Every.org For Good’s disclosures say a processed donation becomes the fund’s property under its exclusive legal control, and it may pick an alternate recipient charity.
PayPal Giving Fund Donor-advised fund, and the donee of record for its partner platforms GoFundMe, GreatNonprofits, Meta / Facebook The fund keeps exclusive legal control of gifts. If a check to an unenrolled charity is returned or not cashed, it may reassign the money, and the donor gets 14 days to name another charity.
Every.org Public charity that receives the gift and grants it on, including for its API partners such as Giving Multiplier — Every.org grants gifts on unrestricted. A nonprofit that has not connected a bank account is paid monthly through PayPal Grants, PayPal Giving Fund or ForGood (formerly Network for Good). Every.org told Whole Whale that this route stays open for nonprofits that have not created a profile.
Our Change Foundation Donor-advised fund (run by GetChange Corporation, getchange.io) No public donation pages RoundUp.org, GiveFreely RoundUp’s terms put gifts under Our Change Foundation’s exclusive control and discretion. For a nonprofit that never registers, they say only that the fund will send it a letter.

Behind a wall

2 platforms · donor-advised-fund products

Consumer donor-advised-fund products. Each has a page for every charity, but a gift is a grant from the donor’s own fund and needs a login, so a donor searching for the nonprofit is unlikely to land here.

Platforms, how many nonprofit pages each has or had, the tip and fee each takes, and the six checks. Each check is answered yes, no, unclear, or not checked.
PlatformNonprofit pagesTip / fee1Off-domainbaseline2Auto-generated3No consent4Takes giftsbaseline5Intermediary6Search-indexed
Behind a wall
B CharitableBehind a wallPublic DAF directory. The charity page is public, but a gift is a grant from a donor-advised fund and needs a donor login.1.3M6 Oct 202610% tippreselectedProcessing fees are taken out of contributions; investment fees of 0–1% Off-domain: Yes Auto-generated: Yes No consent: Unclear Takes gifts: Yes Intermediary: Yes Search-indexed: Unclear
Uncommon GivingBehind a wallProfiles are public but hidden from search engines (noindex), and giving needs a donor login.~1.5M6 Oct 20262% platform fee, capped at $100, charged to the nonprofit, plus processing fees if the donor does not cover them Off-domain: Yes Auto-generated: Yes No consent: Yes Takes gifts: Yes Intermediary: Yes Search-indexed: No

Good behavior

5 platforms · not shadow pages today

Platforms that changed how they work, or take gifts only with the nonprofit’s consent. They stay on the record with the date they changed, so the exit is as visible as the entry.

Platforms, how many nonprofit pages each has or had, the tip and fee each takes, and the six checks. Each check is answered yes, no, unclear, or not checked.
PlatformNonprofit pagesTip / fee1Off-domainbaseline2Auto-generated3No consent4Takes giftsbaseline5Intermediary6Search-indexedEvidence
ReformedPlatforms that changed how they work so their pages no longer meet the definition. The change is logged with its date.
GoFundMeReformedOpt-in onlyGoFundMe made charity pages opt-in in October 2025. On October 10, 2026, all 40 sampled pages in its charity sitemap showed an approved claim by the organization, and pages for unclaimed organizations we tried returned 404. A page field named npoProfileOptIn still reads false; GoFundMe does not document it.8,87010 Oct 2026peak ~1.4M, 202517.5% tippreselected0% platform fee for organizers (checkout text) Off-domain: Yes Auto-generated: Yes, from research only No consent: No Takes gifts: Yes Intermediary: Yes Search-indexed: Yes Bundle
18 Sep 2026
Every.orgReformed5,58323 Sep 202615% (selectable up to 30%) tippreselected0% Every.org platform fee. Payouts to nonprofits without a connected bank account go through PayPal Grants or PayPal Giving Fund (no fee) or ForGood (1.50%) Off-domain: Yes, from research only Auto-generated: Yes, from research only No consent: Yes, from research only Takes gifts: Yes Intermediary: Yes, from research only Search-indexed: Unclear Bundle
23 Sep 2026
Charity NavigatorReformedNot counted2.5% Give Lively platform fee on Giving Basket gifts (opted-in charities only) Off-domain: Yes, from research only Auto-generated: Yes, from research only No consent: No Takes gifts: No Intermediary: Yes, from research only Search-indexed: Yes Bundle
23 Sep 2026
Compared, not listedPlatforms that list nonprofits but take gifts only with the nonprofit’s consent. They show the model works without shadow pages.
TiltifyNot countednoneContribution fee varies by the charity's plan; Tiltify states its average is under 5% Off-domain: Not checked Auto-generated: No No consent: No Takes gifts: Yes, from research only Intermediary: No Search-indexed: Not checked No bundle
yet
America’s Charities874 Aug 2026none Off-domain: Yes, from research only Auto-generated: No No consent: No Takes gifts: No Intermediary: Yes, from research only Search-indexed: Yes, from research only No bundle
yet

Taken down

1 platform · pages removed

Giving Fountain delisted every organisation and took the site offline in response to community feedback. The marks show what its pages did while they were live.

Platforms, how many nonprofit pages each has or had, the tip and fee each takes, and the six checks. Each check is answered yes, no, unclear, or not checked.
PlatformNonprofit pagesTip / fee1Off-domainbaseline2Auto-generated3No consent4Takes giftsbaseline5Intermediary6Search-indexedEvidence
OfflinePlatforms that have taken their pages down. They stay on the register with their record.
Giving Fountain022 Sep 2026peak 1.7M, 2026none8% disbursement fee on every gift, deducted from the payout Off-domain: Yes Auto-generated: Yes No consent: Yes Takes gifts: Yes Intermediary: Yes Search-indexed: Yes Bundle
17 Sep 2026

Search the platform for your name, then claim it or have it removed.

Most of these platforms built a page for every organization in the IRS exempt-organization file, so a registered nonprofit is likely to have one on each platform marked yes for check 2.

  1. 1Search each platform for your legal name and EIN.

    Open a platform in the register to see what we found and where its pages live.

  2. 2Decide whether to claim or remove.

    Claiming usually gets you payouts and donor data; removal takes your name off the platform. Each platform page carries the removal route where we have verified it.

  3. 3Check where the money went.

    Where check 5 is yes, gifts made in your name sit with an intermediary fund until claimed, and the fund may regrant them elsewhere.

  4. 4Tell us.

    Found a shadow donation page for your organization, or a platform we have not listed? Email report@shadowdonation.org with the page address. We examine every report before anything is published.

Read the letter from state attorneys general to GoFundMe

In March 2026, attorneys general and charity regulators from 21 states sent GoFundMe a public letter with six demands. Read the original, what each passage means for fundraising practice, and GoFundMe’s reply.

Read the letter, explained
  1. Prove the pages are gone, and that consent comes first
  2. The nonprofit should not have to do the cleanup
  3. Stop outranking the charity
  4. Tell donors who gets the money, who controls it, and what it costs
  5. No implied connection
  6. Review whether tips belong to the charities

Latest in the log

Every capture, finding, regulatory action and platform change, dated and sourced.

Full event log
  1. Observed Network for Good

    Current ForGood checkout is live by EIN

    MoreLess

    donate.forgood.org/donation/<EIN> loaded a guest card checkout for Move For Hunger, To Be Heard Foundation, American Red Cross and 18 of 20 randomly sampled small charities. nfggive.org redirects to it, and the legacy networkforgood.org form also still loads. Google returned some of these checkouts for a site-restricted search. No gift was completed.

    Source: ForGood checkout for Move For Hunger

    Link to this event
  2. Legal & regulatory GoFundMe

    Six Oregon nonprofits press proposed class action

    MoreLess

    Six Oregon nonprofits alleged that GoFundMe created fundraising pages using their names, logos and identities to collect donations and fees without authorization, misleading donors. The claims are allegations in a proposed class action, not findings by a court.

    Source: The Oregonian/OregonLive, 2026-10-27

    Link to this event
  3. Other Every.org

    Every.org confirms opt-in pages and a partner route for unclaimed nonprofits

    MoreLess

    Every.org's team told Whole Whale it began moving to an opt-in platform in Q4 2025 and completed the change early in 2026, so pages for nonprofits that have not created a profile no longer show a Donate button. It said the donation route for those nonprofits stays available to strategic partners such as Giving Multiplier, and runs from the donor-advised-fund side of its organization. It said it has had no complaints from nonprofits or state associations about gifts made this way. As observed by Whole Whale, a rendered capture the same day showed the Move For Hunger profile with only a prompt to create a profile, while every.org/move-for-hunger#/donate/card still loaded a donation form with the notice that Move For Hunger “has not provided permission for this page.” Giving Multiplier lets donors pick any nonprofit on the IRS 501(c)(3) list, or enter an EIN, and its donations are processed by Every.org. Every.org's statement is paraphrased from correspondence with Whole Whale.

    Source: Every.org correspondence with Whole Whale, and Whole Whale observation, 2026-10-16

    Link to this event
  4. Takedowns & reforms Every.org

    Donate button limited to approved profiles

    MoreLess

    Rendered captures on 2026-10-12 show the profile pages of Move For Hunger, Hawksbill Hope and Voice And Pen Inc, none of which has created an Every.org profile, with no Donate button. Each shows "Do you work for Move For Hunger? Create your profile to:" (with that nonprofit's name) and "They haven’t created their profile yet." A claimed control, GiveDirectly, still shows Donate. The direct address every.org/move-for-hunger/donate, and the profile address with #/donate/card added, still load a card, bank, PayPal, crypto, stock, DAF, Venmo, gift card and IRA donation form with the notice that the nonprofit "has not provided permission for this page", and the partner API still reports donationsEnabled true for these nonprofits, so gifts can still be made by link. On 2026-10-12 Whole Whale tried to create a profile for a nonprofit it does not work for, and Every.org did not allow it without approval. When the button was removed is not known: browser captures on 2026-09-23 were blocked by a Vercel checkpoint. Every.org's help centre has no article announcing the change.

    Source: Every.org evidence bundle, 2026-10-12

    Link to this event

The six checks

A platform is listed when the evidence shows its pages meet the definition. Telling donors that the nonprofit has not claimed the page is a mitigation, not an exemption.

Method and evidence standard
  1. 1

    Is the page hosted by someone other than the nonprofit?

    The page lives on the platform’s domain, not the nonprofit’s.

  2. 2

    Did the platform create the page itself?

    The platform built the page, typically from the IRS exempt-organization file, before anyone at the nonprofit touched it.

  3. 3

    Did the nonprofit never opt in?

    The page went live without the nonprofit authorizing it. A notice saying the nonprofit has not claimed the page does not change this: disclosure is a mitigation, not an exemption.

  4. 4

    Does the page take donations in the nonprofit’s name?

    A visitor can complete a donation on the page, addressed to the nonprofit.

  5. 5

    Does the money pass through a fund the nonprofit does not control?

    Gifts are received by an intermediary fund, sponsor, or donor-advised fund that can hold the money, and reassign it if the nonprofit never claims it.

  6. 6

    Are the pages exposed to search engines?

    The platform publishes its nonprofit pages to search engines, through a public sitemap and no noindex, so a donor searching for the nonprofit can land on the platform instead of the nonprofit’s own donate page.