Group refunds $20m after wall campaign fails

WASHINGTON: The crowdfunding platform Gofundme said more than $20 million (£15.5 million) in donations were slated to be refunded after a campaign to raise $1 billion for the Trump administration to build a wall on the border with Mexico fell well short of its goal.

The fundraising campaign, which began last month, had gone viral as President Donald Trump’s attempt to get Congress to pay for the wall fuelled a heated political dispute and resulted in a partial shutdown of the federal government.

More than 325,000 donors had pledged in the Gofundme campaign that the organiser, a veteran from Florida named Brian Kolfage, said would have been used for Trump’s border wall.

But in a note posted on the campaign’s website on Friday, Kolfage said the federal government would not be able to accept the donations “anytime soon.”

Kolfage said in an interview that donating to the government would have required approval from Congress, and he knew a Democrat-controlled House would not give its approval.

Instead, Kolfage said, he has formed a Florida-based non-proit organisation called We Build the Wall that will use donations to inance a private effort to build parts of the wall where private landowners allow construction.

Gofundme donors would have to proactively choose to redirect their money to the non-proit; otherwise, they would be refunded.

Kolfage said he did not know exactly how many donors would want to redirect their money nor how many landowners would want parts of the wall constructed on their properties.