ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox announced Tuesday that the state has filed lawsuits against six crowdfunding and charity-related platforms, accusing them of creating online donation pages for nonprofits without the organizations’ knowledge or consent and then soliciting contributions through those pages.
The lawsuits name GoFundMe, PayPal Inc., Charity Navigator, JustGiving, Pledgeto and Network for Good. Cox said the platforms used publicly available information to generate fundraising pages for more than 1 million nonprofits nationwide, including several thousand in Alaska, without first obtaining permission from the charities.
“Generosity depends on trust,” Cox said in a statement. He said some Alaskans may have donated believing they were supporting a specific charity even though the organization did not authorize the page and “may never have received the donation — or may have received less than donors intended because of fees.”
The attorney general’s office said GoFundMe created 1.4 million functional charity pages in fall 2025 that allowed donations. Cox’s office said GoFundMe may have created unauthorized pages for as many as 5,000 Alaska-based charities, often without the nonprofits’ knowledge.
State officials said the investigation began after Alaska nonprofits started reporting suspicious fundraising pages appearing online without their involvement.
“Anyone Alaskans can call us,” said Mark Cucci, a senior assistant attorney general in the state’s Consumer Protection Unit.
“We actually heard from some local charities about this.”
Cucci said concerns spread quickly through Alaska’s nonprofit community after reports surfaced late last year.
“The nonprofits are a close-knit community here,” he said. “They kind of got together and got the word out that there were these unauthorized donation pages on the GoFundMe site for them.”
Investigators later found similar pages on multiple platforms.
“They found that there were unauthorized pages on other sites with active donation buttons where donors could donate to the charity without the charity ever having any knowledge that these pages were created for them,” Cucci said.
The state’s Consumer Protection Unit said its investigation found other platforms engaged in similar conduct, including hosting pages that appeared to represent Alaska nonprofits even when the organizations had not agreed to allow the platforms to solicit donations on their behalf.
State attorneys argue that nonprofits have a right to control fundraising in their name, including the strategies they use, the vendors and platforms they partner with, and how they manage donor relationships. The state said unauthorized pages can collect fees, display outdated or inaccurate information, compete with a nonprofit’s own campaigns, or prevent the organization from knowing who donated and when.
The lawsuits allege violations of Alaska’s Charitable Solicitations Act, which the state says requires fundraisers to obtain consent before raising money for a charity, as well as the Alaska Consumer Protection Act.
The Foraker Group, a nonprofit support organization based in Alaska, praised the legal action.
“Philanthropy relies on the ability to honor donor intent and donor trust,” said Laurie Wolf, the group’s president and CEO, adding that such transactions lack nonprofit consent, transparency and accountability.
Cucci said the Foraker Group helped alert state officials and connect investigators with affected charities.
“They were the ones that I believe contacted us initially,” Cucci said. “So we worked with them and we opened an investigation at that point.”
According to investigators, several Alaska charities said they had no knowledge certain donation pages existed.
The state is seeking court orders requiring the companies to remove unauthorized donation pages for Alaska charities and is seeking civil penalties for each alleged violation of Alaska’s Unfair Trade Practices and Charitable Solicitations laws.
Under Alaska’s Consumer Protection Act, civil penalties for each violation could range from $1,000 to $25,000, according to Cucci.
Cucci said the state’s top priority is forcing platforms to remove pages that were created without nonprofit consent.
Investigators also want to determine how much money has been collected through these pages, and how much ultimately reached the charities. Cucci noted that many donation platforms take fees or optional tips that reduce the amount charities receive.
In a statement, a spokesperson for GoFundMe said the company created nonprofit pages using publicly available information and the donations were directed to the intended organizations.
“GoFundMe’s mission is to help people help each other by making it easier for donors to discover and support the causes they care about. We are committed to helping nonprofits reach new supporters by connecting them with the millions of people on our platform who want to make a difference. Nonprofit Pages were created using publicly available information to help people support nonprofit organizations, with donations going to the intended nonprofit.”
The spokesperson said GoFundMe has since removed unclaimed pages.
“After hearing feedback from nonprofit leaders in October, we acted quickly to make Nonprofit Pages fully opt-in, removed and de-indexed unclaimed pages, and turned off search engine optimization by default. The immediate changes we made directly addressed the concerns of the nonprofit community, and reflect our continued commitment to transparency, accountability, and partnership with the nonprofit sector."
From the perspective of nonprofits
As mentioned above, concerns were raised last fall. Since the problem was discovered, nonprofit leaders and representatives like the Foraker group have been advising nonprofits to take steps to secure their information.
“So the first thing to know is that it’s happening and the next thing to do is to do their own research, figure out where they can see themselves, who’s using their information,” Wolf said. “And then the Attorney General’s Office actually has published a phone number that we are also sharing at Foraker, that they want you to call them and have that conversation. They’re keeping a list of harm that has been done.”
If a nonprofit wants to contact the Attorney General’s office, they can do so by calling the number 907-269-5200.
While the lawsuit is specifically in regards to the pages created by GoFundMe, PayPal Inc., Charity Navigator, JustGiving, Pledgeto and Network for Good, Wolf said the problem is broader than just the pages they know about.
“We actually don’t even know how many companies have done this. So it happened all at once, without any knowledge.”
Alaska’s laws against this kind of impersonation are strong Wolf said, giving her hope the case will be successful.
“We want them to follow the law but also we want organizations to know that these are their... this is their choice,” Wolf said. “This is their right. They should be able to control their brand. They should be in relationship with their donors. And they should be in control of how their information is used online. And that’s not what’s happening right now.”
Many any nonprofits use crowdfunding sites as a convenient way to collect donations, which is fine Wolf said.
“The problem is when the company makes the choice for you,” Wolf said. “So, it’s not a problem if a nonprofit says, ‘oh, I’d like to use this platform, or I’d like to use...’ Well, PayPal is named in the lawsuit. ‘I’d like to use PayPal as my...As the way that I’d like to make this transaction.’ That’s fine. What’s not fine is when they decide it for you and you don’t know it.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information from state officials.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information from state officials.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
Copyright 2026 KTUU. All rights reserved.