California and La Top Most Generous Communities in 2025, gofundme analysis finds
During a dynamic year marked by several problems – especially devastating in January of the wild – Californians, and Angelosos in particular, responded by repeating the donors of gofundme providers in 2025, the company announced.
Gofundme’s Year in Aid report, published Tuesday, ranked California as the most generous state and Los Angeles as the most generous community, based on the percentage of gofundme or combined 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’re finding is that when the need increases, people and nonprofits respond by giving more,” said Tim Cadogan, CEO of Altadena.
“You never want your community to be affected that way, but part of it is when things happen, people really step up,” she said. “We’ve seen that here. … There’s a lot of hope that when the chips are down, people step up.”
An average of 1 in California households donated to a gofundme fundraiser this year, a report found. Almost all residents of Los Angeles County have been served.
California’s unprecedented year began in 2025 as several wildfires swept through Los Angeles County, destroying the communities of Altadena and Pacific Paisades.
Three days after the fire started, many donations poured into Gofundme from all over Jan’s world. Its 2025 field aid fund has also been one of the most successful workers in the history of the speaker, presenting thousands of grants to those in need. Hundreds of personal payments and help families and businesses start to recover. Organizations are also involved.
“I’ve worked on about 110 disputes since I’ve been here [at GoFundMe]. … I’ve never been in the midst of this,” said Cadogan, whose family fled the Eaton fire on the night of Jan. 7 But he didn’t lose his best spirits, this sense of, ‘I’m not alone.’ ”
“I used to say to myself, ‘My fundraiser represents an incomparable amount of love,'” she said.
While gofundme has a formula for responding to major disasters, Cadogan said it’s different to see the need — and support — after the LA Firestorms. It was also new to see the high involvement from Grassroots, community organizers, who worked, who worked to help raise awareness or support for disadvantaged workers, such as those who support black or Latino families who have lost their homes.
There has been some concern about the nation’s growing reliance on renewable energy, especially after natural disasters, when natural resources tend to benefit more from natural resource networks and that subsidies are needed instead of insurance.
But gofundme has continued to say its role is not to correct historical disparities with the program, but to provide immediate, direct relief.
“Our platform is designed to help people help each other. And we were able to do that in an unprecedented way here,” Cadogan said. “It doesn’t replace FEMA support, it doesn’t replace insurance, it combines those — and it’s really fast.”
In addition to several successful field aid funds, the company promoted campaigns that responded to the dramatic outbreak of unregistered transport in the summer, as well as other major situations across the region.
Gofundme also reported that “Critical fundraising” rose by 20% this year, especially for those facing food insecurity, a growing concern that led to an outpouring of food aid, or snap.
