PayPal introduces GoFundMe competitor with restrictions

PayPal announced a new fundraising service called "Generosity Network" that appears poised to take on GoFundMe, part of PayPal's continued expansion into financial services that it has been missing so far. The service enables you to set up a fundraising page and process donations through the PayPal payment platform. Transaction fees do not apply to contributions made with credit and debit cards, but according to TechCrunch, PayPal intends to collect eventually.

Generosity Network is very simple to use as GoFundMe. Still, unlike the popular platform, it limits the duration of campaigns to 30 days and limits the total amount of donations you can collect at $ 20,000. Individuals can utilize the service, businesses as well as organizations, as long as they comply with PayPal's rules on misleading claims, hate speech, and other guidelines.

PayPal had a fundraising feature before the Generosity Network called Money Pools, but it was designed for use among friends and family, with direct requests for contributions. The Generosity Network is public-facing, with campaign pages that allow you to go into detail about the planned use of the funds you collect and provide photos. Like GoFundMe, the Generosity Network's potentially broad reach opens up the possibility of fraudulent campaigns. PayPal removes campaigns that violate its terms but does not list other proactive ways to prevent fraud, relying on the community to report anything that seems suspicious.

Fundraising platforms like the Generosity Network and GoFundMe have become increasingly popular as the pandemic has left many out of work or with unexpected medical bills. The PayPal version of the service appears to be convenient because PayPal itself is already famous, and people may already have their payment information in the company's system.

Generosity Network joins a couple of new PayPal initiatives, such as cryptocurrency trading and contactless payment features for partner retailers, that were launched over the last year. These new features prepared the company to better compete with Square and now Google. Google's relaunch of Google Pay expanded the service from a digital wallet with peer-to-peer payments to an all-in-one financial tool with Mint-like tracking, and eventually banking services.

The PayPal Generosity Network is available in the US today for new campaigns and donations.