GoFundMe has recently started a campaign to help federal workers that are affected by the government shutdown. The company has raised over $90,000 from over 1,000 people in just two days.
The fund, which was announced by GoFundMe’s CEO Rob Solomon, was started with an initial donation of $10,000 from New Age guru Deepak Chopra, which was then matched with a donation from GoFundMe itself.
Donations towards the fundraiser will be distributed to a number of different nonprofit organisations working to help the approximately 800,000 workers affected by the shutdown. The World Central Kitchen in Washington DC, which is currently providing free meals to federal workers, is one such organization, and the National Diaper Bank Network is another
The company said that it intends to distribute the funds raised to nonprofits who will provide assistance in the form of food, counseling, and housing. GoFundMe said it will release a full list of the nonprofit organizations in the coming days, and has asked for any other nonprofits currently helping federal workers to get in contact.
Huffington Post reports that over 1,500 GoFundMe campaigns have already been set up by federal workers affected by the closure, which is thought to be impacting around 800,000 employees across the nine departments who haven’t already had their funding approved.
Around 380,000 of the workers who were deemed non-essential have been asked to stay home, but the other 420,000 essential employees are currently working without pay. It’s now been 10 days since most of these employees missed their first paycheck.
(Via The Verge)
