Ethical Tech and Trust in the Nonprofit Industry

Trust is the invisible currency of giving. It powers generosity, fuels belonging, and sustains the bond between nonprofits and the communities they serve. Donors don’t give to tech platforms and profit models. They are people. When they give, they do it for the people and missions they believe in.

That’s why when trust wavers, the entire philanthropic ecosystem feels it. Our industry has been grappling with a story that goes beyond one company or one product launch. It’s about what happens when technology moves faster than trust and when consent is treated as optional rather than essential. 

What Happened at GoFundMe and Why It Matters

In early October, GoFundMe automatically created more than 1.4 million online donation pages for U.S. nonprofits. It did this without first obtaining permission. And this wasn’t a project in the backend to make onboarding easier.

Unforunately, as outlets like ABC7 News Bay Area reported, many of the affected organizations didn’t even know these pages existed. In some cases, the new pages appeared in Google search results before the nonprofit’s official donation page. That meant donors searching “Donate to [Nonprofit Name]” could easily land on GoFundMe’s page rather than the nonprofit’s own website.

The implications are serious. Nonprofits get no control over how their brand, story, or mission appears until they claim the page. That also means no access to the donor data behind those gifts. The pages also include default “tips” of around 15–17 percent for the platform itself. Donors had to manually remove or reduce that tip, and might believe they were giving entirely to the nonprofit when in fact a portion was going elsewhere.

Even GoFundMe now acknowledges that “some organizations were unaware” of these pages. At the core, non profits being in control of how their brand and mission shows up in the world is the most basic building block of fundraising. As technology companies, we can't speak on behalf of them. We have to empower them to amplify their voice through technology.

Why Brand Stewardship is a Requirement

For nonprofits, controlling your brand isn’t about restrictions or being domineering. It’s about stewardship and responsibility. Your brand and supporter journey is how your organization safeguards the relationships that make giving personal and meaningful.

One impact of these relationships being weaker is that when your nonprofit can’t see who donated, you can’t thank them, share updates, or report impact. That breaks a vital feedback loop between generosity and gratitude. And when donors feel disconnected from the outcome of their gift, they may hesitate to give again.

Brand stewardship means being in command of your message, your data, and your donor experience. It’s how nonprofits preserve authenticity in an increasingly automated world. Losing that control can make giving transactional instead of relational. 

Consent and Transparency is the Foundation of Ethical Technology

Consent is not a checkbox. It’s a principle that requires opting in. No technology should act for a nonprofit without explicit approval. And no donor should be left wondering where their gift really goes. Using an opt-out flow for consent when trying to represent a nonprofit is entirely backwards. The organization should enthusiastically consent to using any tool that will host their supporter journey. 

Transparency is equally critical. Donors should always understand the path their money takes and how their data is used. Platforms that obscure fees, hide donor information, or alter the giving journey without disclosure risk doing long-term harm to the very missions they claim to support.

At haku, we built our platform around the values of consent and transparency because we’ve seen what happens when they’re ignored. Every nonprofit that partners with haku has full visibility and control of their donation pages, how data flows into their CRM, and how communications reach their supporters. 

We know better than to try to speak for you. Instead, put our effort into amplifying your voice.

Build Confidence and Trust By Staying in Control

When nonprofits know exactly where their donor data lives, how their brand is represented, and how supporters engage, confidence replaces uncertainty.

That confidence creates freedom to innovate, to optimize your existing supporter journey, and to fundraise compliantly. Instead of worrying about who owns your data or where donations are routed, you can focus on cultivating relationships and telling stories that inspire generosity.

At haku, every feature exists to keep your nonprofit in the captain’s seat. That’s why you’ll never find hidden fees, paywalls, or default tips here. Instead, you’ll be able to:

• Fundraise without limits: With all features included from the start.
  
  
• Manage events and campaigns in one place: From galas to 5Ks, keep every detail connected.
  
  
• Customize everything: Registration forms, emails, donation pages, reports. You own your brand and your workflow.
  
  
• See your donors clearly: Unified data that connects giving, participation, and engagement history.
  
  
• Partner with real people: Dedicated onboarding and support, so you’re never left to figure it out alone.

Technology should make giving easier, not murkier. haku gives nonprofits the clarity to lead with confidence and the tools to deepen trust.

Ethical Innovation in Practice

The most powerful technology amplifies, rather than replacing, the human element in your organization. Our platform was built to work with organizations, not around them. Every feature and product within our platform is guided by a simple question: Does this give our clients more control, or less?

That’s the standard we hold ourselves to and the one we believe the entire industry should adopt.

Rebuilding Trust Across the Sector

Most companies in the nonprofit tech space genuinely want to help. But intent isn’t enough. We have to match good intentions with good practice with consent, transparency, and accountability.

Every company serving nonprofits has a shared responsibility to protect donor trust. That means prioritizing partnerships over profits, long-term stewardship over short-term metrics, and listening to the organizations that make generosity possible. When you choose a vendor, make sure that trust and transparency are at the core of their mission to support your mission. 

Especially given some of the challenges that the nonprofit sector has had to weather recently, building trust is more important than ever. When we protect trust, we protect the future of giving itself.

Why Consent, Transparency, and Trust Matter When Choosing a Vendor

Technology should never speak for a nonprofit without its consent. It should never confuse donors, obscure relationships, or turn generosity into a transaction.

When nonprofits have true control over their message, their data, their relationships, and their brand, confidence is the natural result. And that confidence radiates outward to donors, from donors to their communities, and from those communities back to the causes that depend on both.

At haku, we believe that when you have control of your own narrative you have the keys to build strong. It’s how we keep trust intact in a digital world and ensure that technology amplifies your mission, not the noise.

If you’re interested in learning more about how haku can help, check out our page detailing how we support nonprofit organizations.