One of the world’s largest crowdfunding sites reported this week that it saw a dramatic rise in campaigns asking for “essential expenses” over the last year as people continue to grapple with inflation and housing costs.
GoFundMe released its annual giving report Tuesday, saying people looking for help with basic needs such as housing have turned to the website in droves. The platform said such campaigns have quadrupled since last year.
CEO Tim Cardogan said in a statement that the crowdfunding model shows that “help is central to our humanity.”
“The desire to help each other transcends borders, languages, and cultures,” he said.
One example featured in the report was a crowdfunding campaign by the Martinez family in Los Angeles, who said they were unexpectedly told to vacate their apartment of 37 years. The family said they were “struggling to find affordable housing options” given the high housing market in the area.
In an interview with KTTV-TV of Los Angeles, they said their landlord decided to evict them so the landlord’s son could move into the unit. The unidentified landlord did not respond to the station’s request for comment.
The Martinez campaign raised $75,359, more than twice its original asking amount, according to GoFundMe.
Experts over the years have pointed to how the rise of platforms like GoFundMe highlights societal issues, particularly when it comes to medical debt. This year seems to have placed a spotlight on the high cost of living many people in the United States have lamented.
The International Monetary Fund cited a number of contributing factors that led to a global cost-of-living crisis in its annual report last year, including the pandemic and climate change, which disrupted food and supply chains, in addition to geopolitical conflict’s aggravating the problems.
According to the IMF, though inflation declined from its peak in 2022, “most countries still face elevated headline and core inflation.”
Inflation slowed over the year, but it spiked again in November, indicating that efforts to combat increasing day-to-day expenses for households has stalled. In October, NBC News reported that U.S. prices are more than 21% higher on average than in early 2020.
The cost of housing, for example, has climbed 4.7% from last year, according to the 12-month Consumer Price Index. Prices for other life essentials, such as electricity and groceries, also remain high.
Voters in this year’s election also reported that the economy was high on their list of concerns at the polls. Economists have warned that President-elect Donald Trump’s policy plans may inflate prices again if he enacts his proposed tariffs.
Trump told NBC News this month that while he doesn’t believe people will face higher prices under his plans, he “can’t guarantee anything.”