Gofundme to refund border-wall donations

Gofundme said Friday that it will return more than $20 million in donations meant to help finance the “Trump Wall” between the United States and Mexico after the effort fell short of its $1 billion goal.

However, the campaign’s organizer said donors can redirect their contributions to a nonprofit that plans to begin work on parts of its own border wall — with or without help from the government.

The viral campaign was launched last month by 37-year-old Brian Kolfage, a triple amputee veteran who received a Purple Heart while serving in Iraq. His concept was simple: If each of the 63 million people who voted for Trump gave $80, they could reach his $5 billion mark. He felt $1 billion would be a good starting point, he added.

On Friday, however, Kolfage updated the page to say organizers had concluded that the federal government wouldn’t be able to accept the donation, which had grown to more than $20 million. Instead, he created a Florida-based nonprofit named “We Build the Wall Inc.” to take on the contributions.

Kolfage said donors have expressed that they still want to see their money go toward a wall, however, which he said prompted him to create the nonprofit organization. His team determined that the wall could be built for $2 million to $3 million per mile, he said. Some of the donations would also be used to pay private landowners at the border to allow construction on their property.

“When Americans see us completing real miles of beautiful wall, we know that we will raise the many billions we need to finally secure the entire border,” Kolfage wrote to supporters on his Gofundme page.

Gofundme spokesman Bobby Whithorne said the refund was initiated because of Kolfage’s promise that he would return funds to donors if the campaign couldn’t reach $1 billion. They will be contacted via email about the change.

More than 300,000 people have contributed to the campaign that launched Dec. 16, and the donations continued well into Saturday.