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More and more people are turning to GoFundMe for help covering the cost of housing, food, and other basic needs. The for-profit crowdfunding platform’s annual Year in Help report, released Tuesday, underscored ongoing concerns around affordability. The number of fundraisers started to help cover essential expenses such as rent, utilities, and groceries jumped 20%, according to the company’s 2025 review, after already quadrupling last year. Monthly bills were the second fastest-growing category behind individual support for nonprofits. The number of essentials fundraisers has increased over the last three years in all of the company’s major English-speaking markets, according to GoFundMe CEO Tim Cadogan. That includes the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. In the United States, the self-published report comes at the end of a year that has seen weakened wage growth for lower-income workers, sluggish hiring, a rise in the unemployment rate and low consumer confidence in the economy. Cadogan said GoFundMe can see that people are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living. Someone may be behind on rent or needs a little bit of extra help to get through the next month, Cadogan said. Thats a function of whats going on in these economies. And what is interesting is that people do step up and support folks in those situations. Among campaigns aimed at addressing broader community needs, food banks were the most common recipient on GoFundMe this year. The platform experienced a nearly sixfold spike in food-related fundraisers between the end of October and first weeks of November, according to Cadogan, as many Americans’ monthly SNAP benefits got suddenly cut off during the government shutdown. These uses suggest that online crowdfunding has come a long way from its roots as a way for entrepreneurs to raise money for their artistic or business endeavors, according to University of Toronto postdoctoral researcher Martin Lukk. Lukk, who studies economic inequality and co-authored a book about the unfulfilled promise of digital crowdfunding,” said the findings act somewhat as a barometer of where things are at in terms of desperation. When theres no other net to catch people, I think GoFundMe is where they often end up, Lukk said. Lukk cautioned that GoFundMe data doesnt show the full extent of the desperation because not everyone in need participates and many users don’t end up reaching their goals. Organizers must have internet access and technological know-how, he said, and a successful campaign often requires savvy storytelling and strong social networks. Iesha Shepard, 34, was initially embarrassed to ask for help. The New Orleans native said she’s dealt with chronic heart failure ever since she was shot multiple times four years ago. A single mother of two daughters, she said she fell sick last month and hasn’t been able to work her part-time hotel job for the past three weeks. Then came the eviction notice. As someone who barely can make a living, Shepard said she has struggled to keep up with the rising cost of rent and groceries. When her social security application got denied for the second time, she said she felt especially discouraged. She turned to crowdfunding because, as she said, I don’t want to be homeless with my children around the holiday time. That was my last option,” Shepard said. I prayed and I did a GoFundMe. She never expected the response she’s gotten. Her fundraiser has collected more than $1,000 of her $1,800 goal. Setting up the campaign was easy, she said, and the donations really ramped up after she uploaded TikTok videos about her situation. A Nov. 29 post has been viewed more than 10,000 times. Cadogan said his team always hopes that countries have strong government programs around health, housing or seniors’ well-being, for example. But GoFundMe recognizes that no country’s systems address everything, he added. At the end of a year that began with the Los Angeles wildfires that struck Cadogan’s community of Altadena, the GoFundMe CEO said he is blown away by the power of help. While asking for help can be a difficult step,” he said, it is a courageous act that is worth taking. Taking that action opens the door to what can be incredible goodness,” Cadogan said. ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of APs philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy. James Pollard, Associated Press
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The Northern Lights, also known as aurora borealis, may be visible in more than a dozen U.S. states Tuesday, December 9, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Space Weather Prediction Center (NOAA). A full-halo coronal mass ejection (CME) is expected to reach Earth early to midday on Tuesday, potentially causing periods of “strong” G3 geomagnetic storms (on a scale of G1 to G5). The aurora borealis is the result of a geomagnetic storm that occurs when a coronal mass ejection (CME), an eruption of solar material, reaches Earth and causes swaths of purple, blue, and green in the night sky. This years increased solar activity (and thus, more frequent northern lights activity) is likely the result of an 11-year sun cycle peak. Here’s what to know about how to see the spectacular view. Where will the northern lights be visible? The aurora “may be visible over a number of northern U.S. states and lower Midwest to Oregon” on Tuesday, per the NOAA’s alert. According to the NOAA’s map, a total of 15 states are in the line of view for the aurora tonight. Those states include: Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Vermont, and Maine. When is the best time to see the aurora borealis? For the best viewing, the NOAA recommends facing north, in a spot away from light pollution, between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time. You can track the aurora on the NOAAs website, where the agency is providing updates and visibility in real time, with a 30-minute aurora forecast.
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For an architect whose name and work have become known all over the world by laypeople and architecture fans alike, Frank Gehry’s buildings are about as far from the mainstream as one can get. Bent, curved, and clad in shiny metal, the most famous buildings by Gehry, who died last week at 96, are also the most improbable. Coming up with the flamboyant designs for landmark buildings like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles was only part of what made Gehry one of the most successful and celebrated architects in American history. Just as impressive are the ways Gehry helped explore and expand the architecture technologies used to actually build those swooping designsrevolutionizing the practice of architecture in the process. Frank Gehry in Los Angeles, 1989. [Photo: Bonnie Schiffman/Getty Images] Gehry worked for decades to advance new technologies and project management approaches that radically changed how architects work and the inventiveness they’ve been able to bring to modern buildings. “On the technology front he was really a pioneer,” says Aviad Almagor, vice president of innovation at the construction technology company Trimble. A visionary luddite Despite claiming a near-incomprehension of computers, Gehry and his Los Angeles-based firm, Gehry Partners, have been at the forefront of applying high-end technology solutions to architectural design, engineering, project management, and construction since the 1980s. Gehry was one of the earliest architects to experiment with and embrace computer-aided design approaches like optimizing outcomes through parametric design and digitizing designs from concept to construction through building information modeling. These are now standard practices in the world of architecture, but when Gehry and his firm started applying these approaches it was uncharted territory for the field. Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles [Photo: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images] The breakthrough for Gehry came after his firm won a commission to design a large pavilion for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Gehry, a sculptor at heart, designed a massive abstract fish to be built using stainless steel mesh panels. Translating the design concept into a buildable set of two-dimensional blueprints proved complicated. According to an article on the project from Priceonomics, a contractor tried to build a mockup of the project six times, but couldn’t get it right. So Gehry’s team found a solution in a software tool developed by an aerospace manufacturer. Creating an advanced 3D model of the project allowed Gehry and his firm to more clearly communicate the precise shapes and curves of his design to the builders and contractors on the construction site. The project was completed on time and on budget. El Peix, Barcelona [Photo: Jarry Tripelon/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images] It was a transformative change for Gehry and his firm, which then used the approach to bring 3D models of its projects past the design phase and use them all the way through construction. This streamlined the designs of his most complicated buildings, while also minimizing the change orders that could have hampered their fidelity during construction. [Photo: Michael Gottschalk/Photothek/Getty Images] Gehry used this approach on his next major project, his breakthrough masterpiece design for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which opened in 1997. With a highly complex physical form and an exterior designed to be made form thousands of intricately bent and curved sheets of titanium, the design wa anything but straightforward. An advanced 3D model of the project became an early version of building information modeling, or BIM, creating a single source of information about the design that could be used by the architects as well as the trades people and contractors who built the project. It made a seemingly impossible project possible, according to Samuel Omans, head of AI growth strategy at Autodesk, the architecture, engineering, and construction software company behind industry standard design tools like AutoCAD and Revit. “There was no way at that time that he could communicate the cut sheets and fabrication requirements necessary for that external cladding to the manufacturers and to the folks in the field using 2D drawings,” Omans says. “It just wasn’t possible.” During an interview for Wallpaper magazine at his L.A. studio in 2011, Gehry told me this BIM approach reinvented his practice. “That gave us more of a measure of control. It gave us the tools to control our process,” he said. “And I thought that was only valuable to my kind of work because I do very special shapes, but we’ve found over the years that it’s valuable to everyone.” Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao [Photo: Maremagnum/Getty Images] Technology as a service That realization led Gehry’s firm to turn its expertise into a service. In 2002, the firm spun off a subsidiary called Gehry Technologies, which created an architecture-specific 3D modeling tool based off its experience designing with software built for the aerospace industry, as well as a cloud-based collaboration platform to take those 3D models from design concept to built project. Outside clients, including architecture firms ostensibly in competition with Gehry’s for big projects, streamed in to take advantage of the new toolset. In 2014, Trimble acquired Gehry Technologies for an undisclosed sum. “Bilbao is obviously one very famous project, but there were many others where this kind of technology was needed,” says Trimble’s Almagor, who was involved in the acquisition. “They provided services to support those complex projects and help create a much more efficient project without cost overruns, without schedule delays. It really dramatically changed the way a project can be delivered, and this industry is really challenged by cost and schedule.” The Stata Center at MIT, Cambridge [Photo: Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe/Getty Images] Gehry’s architecture technology is now the basis of cloud-based design collaboration tools used by more than a million Trimble customers, and has influenced the shape of 3D design software produced by Autodesk, which had a partnership with Gehry Technologies in 2011. “They were a big part in helping to bring some of our software to the wider market,” says Omans, who is also on the faculty of Yale’s architecture school. He says as contemporary architects have embraced a wider range of inventive forms, this kind of technology has made it more feasible to turn inventive ideas into physical buildings. “The technology was able to drive more and more aesthetic experimentation . . . That approach to the model as the deliverable was absolutely fundamental in delivering some of the most complex projects of the last 25 years.” The LUMA Arles Cultural Center, Arles, France. [Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst/Picture Alliance/Getty Images] As an architect, Omans collaborated with Gehry’s firm several times over the years, and says this emphasis on technology stood in contrast to the analog design style of Gehry himself. “He would sit down with you and he’d be ripping paper apart and he’d be crunching up paper and he’d be drawing and sketching,” he says. “The technology kind of allowed him to become an orchestrator of these data-rich prototype models, not just not just the maker of drawings,” Omans adds. “For Frank, this was technology supporting creativity.” Without that technology, it’s hard to imagine many of Gehry’s best known works ever moving past the stage of one of those hand-made models. Even so, Gehry, who was born in 1929, kept his distance from the computers that enabled so much of his creative success. “I don’t know how to turn it on, or how to use it,” Gehry told me back in 2011. “It complicates my life.”
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