California and L.A. top most generous communities in 2025, GoFundMe analysis finds
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During a tumultuous year marked by several crises — most notably the devastating January wildfires — Californians, and Angelenos in particular, responded with generosity, being the most likely to have been repeat donors to GoFundMe fundraisers in 2025, the company announced.GoFundMe’s Year in Help report, published Tuesday, ranked California as the most generous state and Los Angeles as the most generous community, based on the percent of repeat donors to GoFundMe charities or crowdsourced fundraisers.Four other California counties were also ranked in the top 10, with Marin ranked second, Santa Cruz eighth, Ventura ninth and Santa Barbara 10th.“What we continue to see is that when needs grow, individuals and nonprofits respond with even more generosity,” said Tim Cadogan, chief executive of GoFundMe and an Altadena resident.
“You never want your community to be affected in that way, but the promising part of it is when things happen, people do really step up,” he said.“We’ve seen that here.
...It’s just very hopeful that when the chips are down, people do step up.”An average of 1 in 5 California households donated to a GoFundMe fundraiser this year, the report found.
Nearly 1 million Los Angeles County residents donated.California’s unprecedented year of giving began just days into 2025 as several wildfires swept across Los Angeles County, devastating the communities of Altadena and Pacific Palisades.Three days after the firestorm began, so many donations flowed into GoFundMe from around the globe that Jan.
10 became the platform’s most generous day of the year.Its 2025 Wildfire Relief Fund also became one of the top 15 most successful fundraisers in the platform’s history, delivering thousands of grants for those in need.
Hundreds of personal fundraisers also helped families and businesses begin to recover.Charities also took part.“I’ve work...