Thousands of pounds from the Jay Slater GoFundMe won’t go towards the ongoing search for the teen as we enlist the help of AI to work out how much.
Almost £50,000 has been raised by concerned Brits after the 19-year-old mysteriously vanished on June 17 following a weekend rave in Tenerife. Jay’s mum Debbie Duncan says the ‘generous’ payments will be partly used to support volunteers ‘working hard in the mountains to find Jay’.
“We are currently looking after Paul Arnett, putting together a package of any equipment and essentials he needs and going up to do a drop for him,” she said, adding that other people had accommodation paid for.
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However, the rescue funds will take a hit due to GoFundMe’s charges and transaction fees.
(Image: MEN Media)
While the organisation doesn’t charge a platform fee to start a fundraiser for an individual or business, it takes 25p per donation. It is also standard industry to deduct a processing fee and this money does not go to GoFundMe. In fact, all of this money will be paid to payment processors such as banks or merchant service providers to cover the costs of handling transactions securely.
At the time of writing, the ‘Get Jay Slater home’ Go Fund Me has raised a staggering £49,752 through more than 4,000 individual donations.
We put the calculations through AI, who reckons £1,025 will be deducted from the fundraiser due to the 25p fee on each donation.
Around £1,441.36 won’t reach Slater’s family due to the 2.9% fee (based on the calculation 49,702 X 0.029). This means around £2,466.36 will be taken from the fundraiser all together. GoFundMe will only see the first sum, as the later will go towards operational costs.
Slater’s family have recently hit out at TikTok star Callum Fahim who has quit his amateur investigation into the missing teen after claiming he’s ‘never had any money’ from the fundraiser.
(Image: ITV News)
Speaking to Sky News, Slater’s family say Debbie gave the influencer £740 of her own cash for accommodation, but claims the armchair detective turned ‘bitter’ after they refused to give him any more money.
“We appreciate every single person who’s come out,” they said. “He’s a hiker. We don’t need hikers, we need experts.”
Spanish police called off the manhunt for Slater last month, but says they’re following ‘several leads. It is believed the lad, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, travelled to an Airbnb in the remote hilltop area of Masca, before texting a friend to say he was lost, in need of water, and that his phone’s battery was on 1%.
A local cleaner is thought to be the last witness, after stating the apprentice bricklayer asked her at around 7.30am when the next bus – which wasn’t scheduled until 10am – would arrive. It’s belived Slater then embarked on the 11 hour walk back to his holiday let.
GoFundMe have been contacted for comment.
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