The GoFundMe Campaign to Build Trump’s Wall Crashes and Burns

The crowdfunding effort that raised $20 million came to a predictable end.

Donald Trump inspects border wall prototypes last year in San Diego, California.Mandel Ngan/Getty

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“We The People Will Build the Wall,” the effort to crowdfund President Donald Trump’s border wall, has run into a barrier.

Brian Kolfage, an Iraq War veteran with a history of peddling fake news, started the campaign in December to raise $1 billion of border wall funding through GoFundMe, the crowdfunding platform. On Friday, after raising more than $20 million from 337,000 people, Kolfage brought the campaign to a close. “The federal government won’t be able to accept our donations anytime soon,” he wrote.

A GoFundMe spokesman tells Mother Jones that Kolfage told potential donors on the campaign page, “If we don’t reach our goal or come significantly close we will refund every single penny.” Kolfage also said, “100% of your donations will go to the Trump Wall. If for ANY reason we don’t reach our goal we will refund your donation.” 

“However, that did not happen,” the GoFundMe spokesman says. Because the target figure wasn’t reached, donors to the campaign will receive a refund.

But there’s a twist. Kolfage has organized a dubious new nonprofit called “We Build the Wall, Inc” that will allegedly build parts of the wall on its own. As Kolfage argues, “We are better equipped than our own government to use the donated funds to build an actual wall on the southern border.” The new nonprofit’s advisory board includes noted nativists such as former Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo and recently defeated Kansas gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach.

Donors must proactively choose to transfer their money over to We Build the Wall, according to GoFundMe. If they don’t, they will receive a refund. Donors can ask for a refund now or be automatically refunded in April. 

Potential donors to We Build the Wall may be interested in the results of a BuzzFeed investigation published on Thursday:

[Kolfage] used GoFundMe to collect $16,246 for a veteran mentorship program. The campaign closed in February 2015, and the funds went directly to Kolfage…But representatives for all three medical centers told BuzzFeed News that they have no record of any peer-mentoring programs or Kolfage working with patients at their centers.

Kolfage’s GoFundMe campaign lasted 25 days, four days longer than the ongoing government shutdown that began after Trump also failed to fund a border wall.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

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