The co-founder of GiveSendGo, the crowdfunding platform on which supporters have raised more than $9 million for Canadian truckers protesting vaccinate mandates, is vowing to continue her fight to support objectors.
Heather Wilson told Faithwire Friday she and her staff are looking to get monies raised to Canadian truckers. This comes as Canadian officials have taken steps to block such funding from reaching protestors.
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“We’re going to continue this fight for freedom. This is absolutely insane that governments think they can step in and trample on people’s God-given rights,” Wilson said. “The government doesn’t give us our rights. … God created this world before governments were here, and we have rights that were given to us by God.”
Wilson said GiveSendGo, a U.S.-based company, is looking at legal options to distribute the money.
“We’re not under Canadian rule,” she said. “And we really believe God has us in this fight. … This is probably going to be the fight of my life.”
Watch Wilson discuss the convoy issue as well as the history of GiveSendGo:
Wilson also shared the backstory behind GiveSendGo, a Christian company that has made headlines in recent years for allowing an array of fundraisers, including one for Kyle Rittenhouse, the young man acquitted in the shooting deaths of two men during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
She said she founded the website seven years ago along with her brother, Jacob Wells, and her sister. The three found themselves pondering how to empower Christians to more fervently give back.
“We were all sitting around talking about what it would look like if the church actually did what the church was supposed to do — like when there’s a need, everybody comes together and helps,” she said. “We saw GoFundMe becoming a thing … and we said, ‘That’s awesome, people are coming together to meet people’s needs.'”
But Wilson said, as Christians, they felt they wanted to go beyond people’s material needs.
“[We thought], ‘What if we were to build a company platform that didn’t just meet the material needs … what if we allowed people to crowdfund, raise money, all the while we shared the hope that we found in Jesus with people,'” she said. “So we start walking this journey out.”
Fast-forward seven years and GiveSendGo has become a primary destination for Christians looking to fundraise and, particularly, for projects that have been banned or sidelined by GoFundMe. After Rittenhouse’s controversial fundraiser, Wilson said GiveSendGo exploded due to press and attention.
“We got some name recognition,” she said. “Bigger than just our small circles.”
Now, Wilson believes GiveSendGo could grow to become a real competitor to GoFundMe and other similar crowdfunding platforms.
“We were calling ourselves the alternative,” she said. “And then recently we changed that, and we say, ‘We’re the replacement.'”
Wilson encouraged people to pray for GiveSendGo’s leaders as they navigate the Canadian convoy debate.
“Pray for wisdom because this is all new for us,” she said.
Find out more about the GiveSendGo story here.
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