PETA Foundation accelerates donor acquisition and reaches new younger donors with GoFundMe experiments
Mission
To end animal suffering through advocacy, research, and public education
Challenge
Reach younger donors and grow its supporter base with limited lift
Solution
PETA Foundation leveraged GoFundMe experiments and built-in audience to quickly reach new supporters, capture email opt-ins, and integrate them into existing donor journeys
“The real advantage was that GoFundMe put PETA in front of an already engaged audience. It’s like opening a music venue downtown compared to 100 miles outside the city. You get built-in traffic.”
– Chris Merrow, Director of Corporate Partnerships
Results from GoFundMe experiments after two weeks:*
Nearly 100
donations in a single day
56%
email opt-in rate from the checkout experiment
More than 500
new email addresses
*Based on 2026 GoFundMe data and PETA Foundation-provided data
Low-lift experiments, high-impact results
PETA wanted a simple way to reach younger donors and grow its supporter base. As digital fundraising evolves, connecting with Gen Z donors in ways that feel easy and immediate matters more than ever.
The PETA Foundation team participated in GoFundMe’s experiments, designed to connect nonprofits with donors already active on the platform. That experimentation included:
These experiments gave PETA visibility within a platform where giving was already happening, providing a crucial opportunity to reach a new demographic of supporters. Instead of building campaigns from scratch or driving traffic through expensive promotion, the team could leverage GoFundMe’s existing donor base through the platform’s built-in tools.
- Driving small donations from people already donating to animal-related causes on GoFundMe
- Capturing email addresses and marketing consent from individuals interested in PETA Foundation before a donation is made
The research is clear—you’re in trouble if you don’t connect with the next generation of donors. The biggest win for us in these experiments is reaching younger supporters. GoFundMe puts us right where we need to be, and we’ve added new supporters to our system who we weren’t reaching before.
In the first two weeks of the experiments, fast results were delivered for PETA Foundation, including:
- Donation volume: Nearly 100 donations in a single day
- Lead generation: 56% email opt-in rate and more than 500 new email addresses
- Extended reach: Almost every donor was new to the organization
- Operational ease: New leads were easily added to existing donor journeys
Turning small donations into lasting relationships
For PETA, being present on GoFundMe is less about running a campaign and more about being discoverable when new supporters are primed to give. As an individual donor himself, Chris mentioned, “It took me two seconds to donate. That ease is key to getting people to actually follow through with making a gift.”
What started as small-dollar donations quickly revealed a bigger opportunity: long-term engagement. PETA Foundation didn’t need to reinvent its systems—new supporters were easily integrated into existing donor journeys, allowing the team to begin building relationships immediately.
With GoFundMe’s experiments, we can bring new supporters into our fundraising stream right away.
Building for the future of fundraising
Looking ahead, PETA Foundation is exploring community fundraising opportunities on GoFundMe and continuing to test new innovations. The goal is clear: remove friction, expand reach, and empower more people to support animal welfare. In addition, the team is excited about GoFundMe’s AI functionality, which is designed to create a fundraiser from a simple prompt like “Make me a fundraiser to help birds in captivity.” This will reduce fundraiser abandonment and enable PETA’s community to self-organize around moments and stories they care about.
Results reflect PETA Foundation’s campaign strategy and may vary for other organizations.
Chris’s GoFundMe tips:
- Say yes to testing new ideas, and personalize the donor journey when possible.
- Add new supporters to existing nurture flows to build long-term engagement.
