Several businesses have been offering help to some 800,000 federal workers furloughed or working without pay during the month-long shutdown. Now, fundraising website GoFundMe has started their own fundraiser to help those workers.
The site said it had partnered with author and advocate Deepak Chopra to start the fund. Chopra and GoFundMe both donated $10,000 each. As of Tuesday morning, the money raised reached over $155,000 of their $200,000 goal.
“Our country’s civil servants shouldn’t have to stand in a line at a food pantry, wonder where their next meal is coming from, or wonder if they have enough diapers to make it through the night with their newborn,” the website said in announcing the “Government Shutdown Direct Relief Fund.”
The money will go directly to nonprofits “that are focused on helping government workers impacted by the shutdown.” The fund will also provide donations to the National Diaper Bank Network, a nonprofit that is supplying diapers to new parents impacted by the shutdown.
GoFundMe said it will post a full list of nonprofit recipients in the coming days, and encourage nonprofits that are serving federal workers to e-mail the company, contact@gofundme.com.
