Beyond Crowdfunding: GiveSendGo Shares the Hope of Christ

Most people can go their whole lives not knowing the impact they have made on the world around them. We all make a difference in our families and within our friend group, but it’s rare when we have the opportunity to actually know that we’ve helped make a difference in the lives of millions of people. Heather Wilson does not have to wonder; she can see tangible reminders every day of the impact that she has made.

Just over 10 years ago, Heather Wilson, her brother Jacob Wells, and their sister Emily struck up a conversation that would change their lives and the lives of countless people throughout the world. Crowdfunding had become more and more popular, and their conversation centered around how this way of supporting people in crisis aligned with how Christ’s followers, as described in the Acts of the Apostles, “would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need.” Coming from a strong, faith-filled family, the siblings then asked themselves if there was a Christian fundraising platform, and when they realized that one did not exist, they took a leap of faith and started one. GiveSendGo was born.

GiveSendGo has now been around for over 10 years, and its mission is to “share the hope of Jesus while people fundraise.”

Why the name GiveSendGo? Heather explained that they wanted something that was “outward-focused” and “others-centered” and that this name “captures the heart of what we wanted the platform to be. Give—because generosity is at the core, Send—because we’re sending hope and support, Go—because we’re called to take action.”

And sharing the hope of Christ is one of its main missions. As Heather said, “We can’t stop the trouble that people are having, but we can point them to the one who’s overcome and can provide.”

More than fundraising

Heather explained that GiveSendGo does more than just provide a platform for people to raise money for a cause. It helps people understand that they matter, that they are seen, and that they are deeply loved by God.

Unique to GiveSendGo is its Hope Team. Comprised of just a handful of people, this team makes a monumental difference in people’s lives. Its members call the creator of every campaign and offer to pray with them for their needs or for anything they are struggling with. As Heather explains, this personal touch “lets people know they’re not alone.”

Tragedy and heartbreak surround us. And while the team at GiveSendGo has seen campaigns for people who have lost family members, their homes, a job, or who need help with medical expenses, one in particular has stuck with Heather.

She told the tragic story of a woman whose daughter suffered from postpartum depression and took her own life shortly after the birth of her baby. The woman’s mother gained custody of the baby and started a campaign to help pay for funeral expenses and other costs to help with raising the child. When the Hope Team called to ask if there was anything she wanted to specifically pray for, the woman burst into tears and admitted that she had just pulled out her gun and was about to take her own life because she felt alone and overwhelmed.

The team’s acknowledgment of this woman’s pain, its attention to her suffering, and its outreach saved her life.

Heather explained, “That campaign solidified that we’re doing more than just fundraising on GiveSendGo. God is using us to step into people’s hardest times in life and share hope and introduce them to someone who never leaves or forsakes them.”

The team is truly serving as the hands of Christ here on earth.

Yet they go even one step further.

Filling the vast need

Since its inception, GiveSendGo has established what it calls Outrageous Generosity. Through this program, GiveSendGo staff members examine active campaigns for people the organization itself can help. As they try to determine whom to help, they ask God for wisdom and discernment. For example, they helped a family by filling their pantry with groceries. They bought a car for a family, whose husband was in a terrible car accident and whose child then faced a cancer diagnosis. And they helped students from a Texas Catholic school attend the March for Life.

It's actions like these that change lives and offer the hope of Christ.

This generous spirit is also exhibited by an army of donors who want to share that hope.

Heather explained that people would sometimes reach out to the staff in frustration because their campaign wasn’t working and that no one was donating. When asked if they shared the campaign with friends and family, people often responded that they had not or that they had no family who would help. That insight inspired Heather and her team to create the Giver Army.

The Giver Army helps those who aren’t meeting a campaign goal or who don’t have family or a community to contribute. It is comprised of people who want to donate on a monthly basis but who don’t have anyone in particular in mind to donate to. Anyone can join the Giver Army.

Donors simply visit the site to set up a recurring monthly donation of any amount over $5. They then pick a category where they want the donation to go. Categories include pro-life, crisis response, medical relief, essentials for life, faith based, current emergencies, and more. That donor’s money then gets pooled with other donors who pick that same category, and GiveSendGo charity scouts pour through the existing campaigns that seem stagnant or that have not met their goals. After a verification process, they grant out money each month to help people meet their goals.

Heather calls it the “crowd for the crowdless.”

Becoming a member of the Giver Army is a phenomenal way to make a difference in the lives of people who face tragedies or difficulties alone. And givers can rest assured that GiveSendGo follows strict guidelines regarding what campaigns cannot fund. That includes abortions, gender reassignment surgeries for minors, anything that supports physical violence, and of course anything that supports illegal activities.

Bring the children to me

But it’s not just in the business world that Heather has spread the hope of Christ. She and her husband opened their home to children who needed a loving family.

Heather explained that she and her husband were surprised to find that they were expecting a fifth child, who would be 10 years younger than her nearest sibling. After much prayer, they decided that they wanted to fill in the age gap between these children. Understanding that so many foster children need homes, they decided to adopt through the foster-care system.

Just after their approval, they received a message that a sibling group of five—ages ten, nine, eight, six, and five—needed a home. All had been horribly abused.

Desiring to love like Jesus loves, Heather and her husband opened their home to these children, and what was supposed to be a 15-day emergency placement turned into two years. They eventually adopted one of the little boys.

Heather explained that this experience helped her understand that real love—to love like Jesus—requires daily sacrifice. She recently wrote a book about her experience. Are You That Dude’s Girlfriend? gives readers a glimpse into her family life and explores “what happens when God calls us out of our comfort zones and into the deep end of love. . . . A love that looks like Jesus.”

This is the love that fueled the desire to create GiveSendGo and that makes it the source of solace and hope that it is today. And it is a hope that has reached millions, as GiveSendGo is now in 80 countries and has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for hundreds of thousands of campaigns.

Today, Heather and Jacob run the organization together. Their sister has taken a step back. When asked what her goal is for GiveSendGo’s future, Heather responded, “To be the global leader in online crowdfunding.” But this is not a desire to simply beat out the other crowdfunding groups. Heather and Jacob truly want to make a difference and help people get to know God. As Heather said, “If we were calling millions of people a year and letting them know that they weren’t alone in what they’re going through, it would change the world [and] the opportunity to share Jesus would be greater.”  

That’s what Christ asks of all of us—to follow His laws and do His will here on earth, to help people understand that they matter, and to create a culture where all people are cherished. He asks us to say yes to this command. And as Heather explained, “God’s using the yes we gave to actually change the world.”