GoFundMes for College Tuition Are Up This Year

When Maximillian Matthews was preparing to enter his final fall semester in his master’s program at North Carolina A&T University this fall, he expected his tuition to be covered the way it always had: through federal student loans. Matthews is no stranger to higher education; he’s worked in the sector for two decades, particularly in student affairs, and he holds other master’s degrees.

But in that time, he hadn’t heard about the lifetime limit on how much students could borrow in federal direct loans outside the PLUS program. He’d hit that cap, unexpectedly, his previous semester. And the federal government had done away with Grad PLUS loans, the uncapped federal loan option for graduate students, in its massive overhaul of the student loan system that went into effect in July.

A&T told Matthews his options were to pay out of pocket or take out a private loan. But he couldn’t afford the former option, and he was wary of the latter. So, with the degree he’d worked toward for three years on the line, he chose a third option: He launched a GoFundMe for $1,800.

“I noticed that people on social media were kind of going through the same thing that I was,” he said. “
I was noticing people reach out to the community for support, with paying not necessarily their tuition, but some people needed [help] paying for their cap and gowns [and] various expenses, and so I decided to do the same.”

Matthews isn’t alone. GoFundMe, the largest crowdfunding site, has seen an over 20 percent increase in fundraisers for tuition and related expenses over the past year, according to data the company shared with Inside Higher Ed. That rise comes as Americans have reckoned with rising costs under the Trump administration and declines in social services like food assistance and Medicaid, leaving many students with less money to put toward their education.

The changes to federal student loans have already begun affecting some students and are likely to exacerbate the affordability problem. And though private loans are available, research shows about four in 10 students would not qualify for those loans, and surveys have found that the majority of Americans don’t think taking on debt to pursue higher education is worth it.

“Even if someone has tapped into all of their federal student loans and they’ve done everything right in terms of federal financial aid, they may still have this gap that they’re hoping GoFundMe can try to fill,” said Peter Granville, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation who studies financial aid. “In many circumstances, it could be people who have done everything they can loan-wise and they truly are at the cliff of potentially having to drop out.”

On their fundraising pages, students cite numerous reasons for turning to crowdfunding to support their education. For some, car accidents, job loss, family deaths or medical bills have left them unable to afford tuition. Administrative issues with federal aid or scholarships they were expecting have left others in the lurch. Others say they simply can’t afford the cost of tuition even with the aid their institution has granted them—which college affordability experts say can happen when with institutions underestimate their total cost of attendance.

There is a danger as GoFundMe and crowdfunding become more normalized that it gets portrayed as a solution for the problem.”

—Jeremy Snyder, a professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada

Njideka Ekwuru, an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, said she faced major financial issues last year due to errors she made filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. She had misunderstood the form and had no guidance from high school counselors. Her father was able to fill in the gap, but it stretched him thin.

“That wasn’t feasible at all, because even though I was getting my school [paid for], I knew that in order to get that money, my siblings probably couldn’t have enough food to eat when they’re at home or my dad couldn’t pay his bills,” she said. “Even though he’s trying to make it sound fine … I knew that at one point, one of us would be deprived.”

Her financial aid situation is less urgent for the upcoming year thanks to help from a financial aid officer at UC San Diego who walked her through this year’s FAFSA. But she’s still crowdfunding to pay off an overdue balance of over $8,000 from last quarter, as well as to prepare for future emergencies and hopefully to reimburse her father. She’s set her fundraiser at $100,000, a stretch goal that would help fund her undergraduate education and subsequent medical school aspirations. So far, she’s raised $1,077.

The amounts students ask for varies from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. But one thing they have in common is their urgency—a significant portion of the tuition fundraisers posted on GoFundMe in the past month clarify that students are raising money to pay an outstanding balance or a fast-approaching tuition deadline.

Although little research exists on crowdfunding for education, research into crowdfunding to cover medical expenses shows that the large majority of GoFundMes are ultimately not able to reach their goals. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a study of fundraisers started in the wake of a Colorado wildfire found that GoFundMes are more successful if the beneficiary is wealthy and is surrounded by a wealthier network. And researchers have found that fundraisers for white male beneficiaries are more likely to succeed than fundraisers for beneficiaries of other races and genders.

The rhetoric also matters, said Jeremy Snyder, a professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada who studies medical crowdfunding.

“If you’re well educated [or] you’re able to tell a compelling story about why you deserve to be helped, you’re in a better position than someone who is maybe a nonnative English speaker” or otherwise struggles to articulate why they are deserving of the funds, Snyder said. GoFundMe has recently launched an AI tool to help fundraisers craft their appeals, but Snyder said it’s a double-edged sword; it opens the door for individuals who have difficulty writing to tell a compelling story, but it eliminates some of the humanity and authenticity that have become synonymous with crowdfunding platforms.

Relying on Others

Jessyca Foster is hoping to raise funds on GoFundMe to fill a gap in her tuition and housing costs as she begins a master of social work degree at Washington University in St. Louis.

Because of the new annual caps, she can’t borrow enough in federal loans to cover the full cost of her tuition and living expenses; the program’s tuition is $50,440 per year, and graduate students can only borrow up to $20,500. Foster was unable to qualify for private loans. To make matters worse, she said, her institution was unclear about when her stipend would be distributed, leaving her $500 short on her first month of rent. She also saw her income drop recently when she was unable to work as an in-home caretaker because her client’s mom had contracted COVID-19.

Only two weeks after she started the crowdfunding campaign, though, Foster is more than 96 percent of the way to her goal of $2,400. The contributors have been a combination of people in her life, she said, who believe in her and want to see her succeed in her career, from classmates and professors all the way down to elementary school teachers.

Still, she’s uncomfortable having to rely on the generosity of others.

“I’m very grateful about that, but I don’t feel secure at all,” she said. “I feel like if something were to happen to me, I don’t feel like I would have the support from my institution. I don’t want … to be reliant on people because, the end of the day, we’re all struggling right now, especially with everything going on federally—whether you’re a student or not, there is something, some policy that is directly affecting you.”

WashU said in a statement that its social work school “is committed to providing our graduate students with the financial support outlined as part of their graduate education, including fully funding required practicum credits and providing a living stipend for all Master of Social Work students. We take concerns about the timely receipt of that support seriously and work directly with students to address issues when they arise.”

One of the flaws of relying on crowdfunding is that the rhetoric of GoFundMe campaigns often focus on why an individual is uniquely hardworking and deserving of money, even though, in most cases, the individual is a victim of systemic issues, Snyder argued.

“There is a danger as GoFundMe and crowdfunding become more normalized that it gets portrayed as a solution for the problem,” he said.

Paige Swanstein, co-founder and executive director of the Student Basic Needs Coalition, an organization that helps connect college students with basic needs resources, said students often turn to GoFundMe because it is more immediate than social services or asking their institution for help.

“It’s a way for getting around these kinds of formal systems,” she said. “Basic needs issues aren’t waiting for a form to be approved.”

GoFundMe is just one of the methods she’s seen emerge to help students with urgent expenses. She also pointed to the Faculty and Students Together (FAST) Fund, an initiative of the nonprofit Believe in Students that helps students receive emergency funds quickly. She’s also seen student organizations promote mutual aid campaigns, which refers to peer-to-peer exchanges of funds or resources, for their members on social media.

As GoFundMe continues to become more ubiquitous and as students face more financial challenges, it’s likely that students will continue using the platform to fund their tuition. But those who spoke with Inside Higher Ed said launching their campaigns wasn’t an easy decision. All three said they were nervous about how they would be received.

Ekwuru, for one, said she was worried her friends would think her family was wealthy enough she didn’t need the money. Even she judged herself for asking for help: Didn’t other people need the money more?

“[There are] people who are on their deathbeds, and they need help, and look at me, I’m asking for school funds,” she said.

But she said her family, friends and mentors from her church have encouraged her not to give up.

“[They’re] encouraging me to have faith and keep being persistent,” she said. “Because if I do try, and I keep putting myself out there, and I set aside that fear [of] like, ‘Oh my gosh, what are people going to think of me?’ then something’s going to come from it.”