Marietta named ‘most generous’ city in country by GoFundMe

Worldwide, people have contributed $9 billion to campaigns on the crowdfunding platform

The AJC gets an advance tour of the new Marietta Square Market, located within in walking distance of the Marietta Square. Video by Ryon Horne, Yvonne Zusel/AJC)

Marietta's most viral moment of giving this year was almost certainly when the Cobb County community rallied together to send a retiring mailman to Hawaii.

The GoFundMe campaign to send "Mr. Floyd" on his dream trip pulled in more than $32,000.

But it wasn't the only time people in Marietta were feeling generous this year. In fact, GoFundMe, a popular crowdfunding platform, named Marietta the "most generous" city in the country in 2019.

According to the company, “Marietta, GA, earned its place at the top of GoFundMe’s list because people came together and took action to make a difference in their community.”

Here’s a look at the top 10 most generous cities based on donations per capita on GoFundMe:

1. Marietta, Georgia

2. Rockville, Maryland

3. Santa Monica, California

4. Parker, Colorado

5. Somerville, Massachusetts

6. Bowie, Maryland

7. Beaverton, Oregon

8. Whittier, California

9. Cambridge, Massachusetts

10. Oakland, California

According to the company, there have been more than 120 million donations, totaling $9 billion worldwide since its founding.

"From eradicating lunch debt to supporting animal rescue initiatives, movements from past years still have donor support. New movements that emerged this year were climate change and reproductive rights," according to a report from GoFundMe.

Globally, the United States was the second most generous country, trailing Ireland. It was joined in the top 5 countries by Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Some trends reported this year by GoFundMe:

  • Nearly 60% of donors were new donots
  • A new fundraiser is started on the site every 8 seconds
  • There was a 65% increase in fundraisers mentioning climate change