SAN JOSE, Calif.—PayPal is expanding its fundraising efforts with the launch of the Generosity Network.
Unlike the PayPal Giving Fund, which helps people support charities through online donations, the new Generosity Network lets people raise money for themselves, other individuals in need, or organizations like a small business or a charity.
“This puts the network more directly in competition with other crowdsourced fundraising platforms, like GoFundMe or Facebook Fundraisers. The Generosity Network will be open to PayPal customers in the U.S. only and will allow them to create fundraising campaigns of up to $20,000 over a 30-day period,” Tech Crunch reported.
The company says it was motivated to create the new service after seeing the growth in the peer-to-peer fundraising market following the coronavirus outbreak. It also noted the pandemic has made it difficult for traditional charitable organizations to raise as they had before.
More than half of charities in the U.S. now expect to raise less money than in 2019 as a result of the economic hardships driven by the pandemic, PayPal said, citing a survey by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
Unemployment Also Drives Decision
In addition, over 65 million Americans filed for unemployment at some point over the course of the pandemic, PayPal noted, which often led to them turning to family, friends and their community for extra support.
PayPal Goes Live With Crypto Trading, Payments
Separately, PayPal’s crypto trading and payments is now live for all eligible customers in the United States. As a result, PayPal has ended its waitlist for customers looking to use cryptocurrency in the U.S.
Trading features a limit of $20,000 per week, which is double the originally announced $10,000.
“PayPal ultimately plans to make crypto payments available at 26 million merchants globally,” Coin Telegraph said.
Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal, said the shift to supporting crypto was driven by what he sees as an "inevitable" drift toward virtual currencies.
"The shift to digital forms of currencies is inevitable, bringing with it clear advantages in terms of financial inclusion and access, efficiency, speed and resilience of the payments system, and the ability for governments to disburse funds to citizens quickly," Schulman said.