From Finance To Philanthropy: Greg Mrva's GoFundMe Journey
Greg and I discussed his path from Wall Street to Silicon Valley, his pivotal career lessons, and how GoFundMe has raised over $4.0 billion to help people worldwide. He breaks down the platform's unique business model, which relies on voluntary tips, and the company's major investments in trust, safety, and product innovation.
—
Growing up in Montville, N.J., Greg Mrva understood the value of hard work. His father worked at AT&T, originally working on the phone lines and eventually ascending through the company ranks, and his mother taught special needs students with learning differences. He and his sister were always busy with sports and academics, and they attended a Catholic school, where Mrva learned an impactful lesson about failure on his first day.
'The motto of the school is Latin and translates to 'Welcome to life. You're going to fail often, and through failure, you're going to grow,' he explained. 'It has stuck with me for life. It's certainly good advice for anybody in any profession. Having a growth mindset along the way has been something that I picked up early on in high school.'
Following high school, Mrva attended the University of Virginia, where he received a Bachelor of Arts and majored in economics and history.
He started his career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. It provided critical training for learning his way around financial statements and understanding businesses. Immediately following Goldman Sachs, Mrva decided to pursue a law degree from Harvard Law School.
But after graduating and on his way to becoming a lawyer, Mrva pivoted and decided that his drive to work in consumer tech and the desire to escape cold Massachusetts winters were enough to inspire a move to California.
He landed a role with Montgomery Securities as an associate. One of Mrva's clients, whom he had helped raise money for in the private markets, encouraged him to help build his business–an online game business called Mpath Interactive.
'It was one of the first places that allowed you to play games online over dial-up modems back in the late '90s,' Mrva explained. 'I was a strategy guy, a biz dev guy, a corporate development guy, and we took the business public.'
When the market busted, the business went south, and Mrva had the responsibility of winding down the business and selling the assets. It was an experience early on where he had the opportunity to learn from failure. And it was a slice of life in Silicon Valley. At the time, the reality was that thousands of companies were chasing the dream, but only a handful made it through.
Mrva made it through that difficult time, going on to hold positions at Yahoo!, Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley, and StubHub, among others. Key to his success in those positions were the mentors who surrounded him.
When he worked at Yahoo, he started on their corporate development team, which he eventually ran. There, he spent a lot of time with Yahoo's CFO, Sue Decker. Since Decker started her career on Wall Street and worked as an analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette (DLJ), she brought that rigor to Yahoo, which Mrva appreciated.
'Whenever we met with Sue, she would immediately ask the most probing question and be able to see the analysis and see the clarity,' he said. 'She taught me the precision and attention to detail that the job required.'
Mrva also had eBay as a client, where he had the chance to work with Scott Schenkel–then CFO of eBay and currently CFO of Expedia. When Mrva communicated that he wanted to be a CFO, it was Schenkel who gave him that chance. As CFO of StubHub, he had the chance to be operational and help run the business. He has since taken a lot of that experience to his role at GoFundMe.
GoFundMe has transformed the world of fundraising, helping people to donate money to other people in times of crisis or support organizations they care about. Most recently, it was essential to fundraising for the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires. People rallied on GoFundMe.
'In just a few weeks, we raised over $250 million for those communities,' Mrva explained. 'We're still raising money, and that's from over 1 million individual donors. Over 1 million humans in the United States were impacted and felt the need to help. That's the type of help that we see on GoFundMe every day, and it's really what makes it so special to work there.'
The company's impact goes beyond the dollars. Many people might be surprised to know that, beyond being a household name for individual fundraising, they are one of the largest providers of enterprise technology software to the nonprofit space. Thousands of nonprofits use their software every day for their own digital fundraising needs–including the Salvation Army, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Tunnel to Towers, and more. GoFundMe is behind the digital giving, direct giving, peer-to-peer giving, and live events.
Mrva's role isn't just a job–because he wasn't looking for just any job when he was looking a few years ago.
'I was at a point in my career where I wanted to work at a company that had a purpose and had a mission that resonated with me,' Mrva said. 'I wanted to work at a place where my kids could be proud of what I was doing.'
He was reconnected with Tim Cadogan, GoFundMe's CEO. They had worked together at Yahoo in the early 2000s, when Cadogan ran Yahoo's search business. They connected about Cadogan's vision for GoFundMe and where he wanted to take the platform. To Mrva, it represented the culmination of everything that he had done previously and an opportunity to make an impact.
Over their three years of collaborating as CEO and CFO, they have built a rapport based on complete trust, transparency, and accountability. Mrva admires him for his leadership and overall character.
'I really respect him as a human,' Mrva said. 'As a leader, he sets a very high standard. He lives the mission; he cares deeply about the impact we're having. He also sets a very high bar for expectations of what the team can achieve, the belief and trust and empowerment in the team, and then complete transparency, ownership, and accountability.'
One component that leadership keeps in mind is how to deliver the maximum amount of help to individuals and organizations that are fundraising on the platform. More than 10,000 people start GoFundMes every day. A GoFundMe is free for an individual to start, and the company only charges small transaction fees to pay their payment processors and safely deliver funds. Because the fees are so low, the company asks for voluntary tips, which is unique.
'I've worked at a lot of technology companies, and I don't know of anybody that has a business model where they let the users decide whether and how much the service is worth,' he said.
Mrva explained that people more than pay for the service, enabling GoFundMe to invest in the trust, safety, risk, compliance, product, and technology innovation on the platform.
Innovation in technology has been a game-changer for the company, and AI has helped. Their investment has increased substantially over the past three years, going into three camps: how to make the process easier; how to make the process of donating more impactful and inspiring; and how to activate the community on behalf of individual and nonprofit organizers.
'Our product releases include things like AI storytelling,' he explained. 'We will help get you past that blank sheet of paper. Beyond that, one of the most efficacious things you can do once you've actually created your story is to share your story. We'll use AI to help you do that.'
They have integrations with Meta, Instagram and others to help get the word out. AI coaching tools will help walk people through the steps and act as a coach along the way. They can also leverage AI to suggest donation amounts and help donors share with their networks.
A new product, GoFundMe Profiles, allows people to do just that. It's a LinkedIn-style page, but it's tailor-made for giving. The page helps people curate the causes and organizations that they care about and share them with their networks.
Strategic partners have helped to elevate this new product. Individuals like Paris Hilton have been active in helping to raise money for victims of the Los Angeles wildfires, and Flavor Flav was instrumental in helping Olympians' families raise money so that they could watch their kids compete at the 2024 Games.
Leveraging audiences has created more and more community behind giving, something the company is focused on moving forward.
'We think that we can make it more meaningful for you and me to give,' Mrva said. 'It doesn't have to always be money. It could just be support. We see influencers on our platform who might not donate themselves very much, but their networks can actually be orders of magnitude greater and more impactful in terms of the amount of giving they inspire.'
The goal is to inspire the millennial and Gen Z generations, who are civically minded and deeply aware of the need to help others, to be more supportive of the individuals and organizations they care about.
Regarding future generations, Mrva's advice to aspiring CFOs is simple.
'It really comes down to three things,' he said. 'There's no such thing as a linear path. If you want to be a CFO, you have to take risks in your career and take opportunities when they come your way. You're going to make mistakes and you're going to fail; it's important to learn from those mistakes. Finally, be willing to give and accept feedback. If you can do that along the way, you're going to accomplish great things.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fast Company
an hour ago
- Fast Company
AI gives students more reasons to not read books. It's hurting their literacy
A perfect storm is brewing for reading. AI arrived as both kids and adults were already spending less time reading books than they did in the not-so-distant past. As a linguist, I study how technology influences the ways people read, write, and think. This includes the impact of artificial intelligence, which is dramatically changing how people engage with books or other kinds of writing, whether it's assigned, used for research, or read for pleasure. I worry that AI is accelerating an ongoing shift in the value people place on reading as a human endeavor. Everything but the book AI's writing skills have gotten plenty of attention. But researchers and teachers are only now starting to talk about AI's ability to 'read' massive datasets before churning out summaries, analyses, or comparisons of books, essays, and articles. Need to read a novel for class? These days, you might get by with skimming through an AI-generated summary of the plot and key themes. This kind of possibility, which undermines people's motivation to read on their own, prompted me to write a book about the pros and cons of letting AI do the reading for you. Palming off the work of summarizing or analyzing texts is hardly new. CliffsNotes dates back to the late 1950s. Centuries earlier, the Royal Society of London began producing summaries of the scientific papers that appeared in its voluminous Philosophical Transactions journal. By the mid-20th century, abstracts had become ubiquitous in scholarly articles. Potential readers could now peruse the abstract before deciding whether to tackle the piece in its entirety. The internet opened up an array of additional reading shortcuts. For instance, Blinkist is an app-based subscription service that condenses mostly nonfiction books into roughly 15-minute summaries —ccalled 'Blinks'—that are available in both audio and text. But generative AI elevates such work-arounds to new heights. AI-driven apps like BooksAI provide the kinds of summaries and analyses that used to be crafted by humans. Meanwhile, invites you to 'chat' with books. In neither case do you need to read the books yourself. If you're a student asked to compare Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye as coming-of-age novels, CliffsNotes only gets you so far. Sure, you can read summaries of each book, but you still must do the comparison yourself. With general large language models or specialized tools such as Google NotebookLM, AI handles both the 'reading' and the comparing, even generating smart questions to pose in class. The downside is that you lose out on a critical benefit of reading a coming-of-age novel: the personal growth that comes from vicariously experiencing the protagonist's struggles. In the world of academic research, AI offerings like SciSpace, Elicit, and Consensus combine the power of search engines and large language models. They locate relevant articles and then summarize and synthesize them, slashing the hours needed to conduct literature reviews. On its website, Elsevier's ScienceDirect AI gloats: 'Goodbye wasted reading time. Hello relevance.' Maybe. Excluded from the process is judging for yourself what counts as relevant and making your own connections between ideas. Reader unfriendly? Even before generative AI went mainstream, fewer people were reading books, whether for pleasure or for class. In the U.S., the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that the number of fourth graders who read for fun almost every day slipped from 53% in 1984 to 39% in 2022. For eighth graders? From 35% in 1984 to 14% in 2023. The U.K.'s 2024 National Literacy Trust survey revealed that only one in three 8- to 18-year-olds said they enjoyed reading in their spare time, a drop of almost 9 percentage points from just the previous year. Similar trends exist among older students. In a 2018 survey of 600,000 15-year-olds across 79 countries, 49% reported reading only when they had to. That's up from 36% about a decade earlier. The picture for college students is no brighter. A spate of recent articles has chronicled how little reading is happening in American higher education. My work with literacy researcher Anne Mangen found that faculty are reducing the amount of reading they assign, often in response to students refusing to do it. Emblematic of the problem is a troubling observation from cultural commentator David Brooks: 'I once asked a group of students on their final day at their prestigious university what book had changed their life over the previous four years. A long, awkward silence followed. Finally a student said: 'You have to understand, we don't read like that. We only sample enough of each book to get through the class.'' Now adults: According to YouGov, just 54% of Americans read at least one book in 2023. The situation in South Korea is even bleaker, where only 43% of adults said they had read at least one book in 2023, down from almost 87% in 1994. In the U.K., the Reading Agency observed declines in adult reading and hinted at one reason why. In 2024, 35% of adults identified as lapsed readers—they once read regularly, but no longer do. Of those lapsed readers, 26% indicated they had stopped reading because of time spent on social media. The phrase lapsed reader might now apply to anyone who deprioritizes reading, whether it's due to lack of interest, devoting more time to social media, or letting AI do the reading for them. All that's lost, missed, and forgotten Why read in the first place? The justifications are endless, as are the streams of books and websites making the case. There's reading for pleasure, stress reduction, learning, and personal development. You can find correlations between reading and brain growth in children, happiness, longevity, and slowing cognitive decline. This last issue is particularly relevant as people increasingly let AI do cognitive work on their behalf, a process known as cognitive offloading. Research has emerged showing the extent to which people are engaging in cognitive offloading when they use AI. The evidence reveals that the more users rely on AI to perform work for them, the less they see themselves as drawing upon their own thinking capacities. A study employing EEG measurements found different brain connectivity patterns when participants enlisted AI to help them write an essay than when writing it on their own. It's too soon to know what effects AI might have on our long-term ability to think for ourselves. What's more, the research so far has largely focused on writing tasks or general use of AI tools, not on reading. But if we lose practice in reading and analyzing and formulating our own interpretations, those skills are at risk of weakening. Cognitive skills aren't the only thing at stake when we rely too heavily on AI to do our reading work for us. We also miss out on so much of what makes reading enjoyable—encountering a moving piece of dialogue, relishing a turn of phrase, connecting with a character. AI's lure of efficiency is tantalizing. But it risks undermining the benefits of literacy.
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Best Local Rank Tracker Local Dominator, Now Has AI Competitor Analysis
Best Local Rank Tracker Local Dominator, Now Has AI Competitor Analysis For Better Enhanced Google Maps SEO Local Dominator supercharges its industry-leading local rank tracker, giving businesses and SEO agencies a complete toolkit to dominate local search. The platform now includes a full AI suite for keyword suggestions, competitor analysis, and complete Google Business Profile (GBP) management, turning complex data into a clear action plan. Users can find untapped keywords, analyze rival strategies, and optimize their GMB to attract more customers—all from a single dashboard. Local Dominator is showcasing its local rank tracker, a powerful and intuitive tool built to help SEO agencies and businesses achieve dominant visibility in Google Maps and local search results, now with its newly enhanced platform. Designed for speed and action, Local Dominator turns local rank tracking into a complete command center for driving measurable growth. Visualize Performance with Fast and Accurate Geo-Grid Tracking Local Dominator's advanced geo-grid tracking answers the most important local SEO question: 'Where do I actually rank?'. Instead of a single, misleading average, our technology creates a detailed visual heatmap of your rankings across your entire service area. This instantly reveals your strong and weak zones, showing you precisely where to focus your efforts to improve visibility and attract more local customers. AI-Powered Keyword Discovery and Competitor Intelligence The new suite eliminates manual guesswork by analyzing a business's profile and local search trends to uncover high-intent, untapped keywords that drive ready-to-buy customers. Users can now also automatically identify and track key local competitors, revealing their ranking strategies and identifying geographic areas where opportunities exist to capture market share. From Data to Action with Scan Analyzer and GMB Management The enhanced Scan Analyzer engine processes geo-grid scan data and competitor insights with a single click, transforming complex heatmaps into a prioritized to-do list. Going beyond analysis, Local Dominator now allows agencies and businesses to manage their most critical local SEO asset directly. Users can schedule posts, update business details, respond to reviews, and monitor their profile against spam or unwanted edits, ensuring their GMB listing is always optimized for maximum visibility and engagement. Flexible and Transparent Pricing for Every Agency Local Dominator offers a range of scalable plans designed to fit the needs of any business or agency, from solo entrepreneurs to large enterprises. To make it easy to get started, new users can try the Lite Plan for just $1.95 on their first month (normally $39/mo), which includes 5,000 monthly credits and one GMB connection. For growing agencies, the Advanced ($59/mo) and Pro ($97/mo) plans offer more credits and GMB connections, and also come with 95% off on the first month. All plans include unlimited keywords, competitor ranking, and access to the full suite of AI tools. Key Features of Local Dominator Include: The Professional's Verdict on Local Dominator 'I've promoted others and used several, but I think Local Dominator is the only that is truly focused on giving you accurate, and reliable GMB rank tracking at an affordable price... that's super easy to use,' said Chris M. Walker, Entrepreneur. 'There are a ton of GMB grid trackers... But most of them are part of a bigger tool suite and don't focus on being a proper GMB rank tracker.' 'This is so far the best ranking tool I used and the most accurate one!' shared agency owner Alfredo Delgado. 'The scan results are accurate and generated fast, the interface is very easy to use and super friendly. I also like the way they go about reporting. They made it very easy to share with clients. Overall I'm super happy with Local Dominator.' Quote from Eldar Cohen, CEO of Local Dominator 'Local Dominator is the opposite of every other Google Maps rank tracker—it's the one your team will actually love using. We built it to go beyond simple data. Our analyzer is perfect for prospecting and gives you the exact tasks needed to optimize clients, while our full suite of tools provides everything an agency needs to dominate Google Maps.' About Local Dominator Founded on the belief that local marketing shouldn't be complicated, Local Dominator builds radically simple tools that deliver powerful insights. The company's mission is to empower every local business and agency to stop guessing and start dominating their local market with confidence. For more information about Local Dominator, visit: Media Contact Company Name: Local Wiz Contact Person: Eldar Cohen Email: Send Email City: Chandler State: Arizona Country: United States Website: Press Release Distributed by To view the original version on ABNewswire visit: Best Local Rank Tracker Local Dominator, Now Has AI Competitor Analysis
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
FBI Warns iPhone And Android Users—Do Not Use These Codes
An 'impossible' to detect smartphone threat is now surging, with a new warning that more than 4 million attacks were observed 'in the first half of 2025 alone.' It's no surprise the FBI has a new warning for iPhone and Android users. We're talking QR codes, which Proofpoint warns 'burst on the scene in 2023' and are now being quickly 'adopted by threat actors as a way to remove the victim from the enterprise detection pipeline and bypass traditional URL scanning and filters.' The FBI has now issued a warning to all smartphone users that the latest such attack is taking hold, a change in tactics given all the headlines around unpaid toll, DMV motoring offenses and even the original favorite undelivered package texts. 'Criminals are sending unsolicited packages containing a QR code,' the bureau says, 'and once scanned, victims provide personal and financial information while unknowingly downloading malicious software that steals data from their phone.' Proofpoint warns 'it is impossible to tell if a QR code is a threat just by looking at it.' That makes 'these threats particularly dangerous,' with users now used to 'scanning QR codes with their phone cameras for everything from instructions to menus.' Just as with the FBI's latest advisory, these attacks are 'socially engineered to convince you to scan the code.' Once you do, you're 'redirected to a fraudulent website designed to steal sensitive data, such as login credentials, credit card numbers or personal data.' The FBI's advice is clear: 'Do not scan QR codes from unknown origins.' And while that includes this latest 'brushing' scam, with unsolicited packages delivered to your home with no sender details, it's more likely you'll be caught by a QR code in an email attachment or on a parking meter or even on a poster by the side of the street. The FBI says 'QR code scam has evolved much like all other scams,' and 'if you happen to scan a scammer's bad code, you could end up giving them access to your device.' Do that, the bureau says, and those attackers 'can access your contacts, download malware, or send you to a fake payment portal. Once there, you can inadvertently give them access to your banking and credit card accounts. If you make a payment through a bad QR code, it's difficult if not impossible to get those funds back.' Proofpoint says 'attacks that target people are all about hacking human nature,' and that's certainly the case with QR codes. In a world where your phone helpfully offers a link whenever it sees a code, without any of the link protection or warnings in other apps, it's easy to see why these attacks are surging. You have been warned.
