Is GoFundMe the New Insurance?

Your house is likely the most valuable asset you’ll own—it’s the source of potential intergenerational wealth and the container for your belongings—but the task of insuring it properly comes with a lot less certainty. There’s been much discussion about the failures of homeowner’s insurance over the past few years, in light of the climate crisis wreaking havoc on communities that have long thought they’d never flood or burn. Variables dictate what is covered and what is not—like water coming from above versus from below—which, simply put, is a lot to handle when you’re filing claims after losing your home and all your belongings. In the United States, where a recent survey showed that 40 percent of the population lacks enough cash or savings to cover a $1,000 emergency, a tragic loss can be destabilizing for months on end. Over the past decade, however, crowdfunding has emerged as a sort of balm for these moments, a way of connecting faraway donors with survivors’ immediate financial needs.