Investigative Group

‘Huge Red Flag’: Border Wall GoFundMe Founder Refuses To Answer Basic Questions About His New Nonprofit

HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Andrew Kerr Investigative Reporter
Font Size:
  • Triple-amputee Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage is refusing to answer basic questions about his new nonprofit organization that will use the funds raised by his viral $20 million GoFundMe to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
  • Kolfage announced We Build The Wall, Inc. on Friday, but documents submitted to Florida reveal the nonprofit was created over two weeks ago in late December.
  • Kolfage is directing check donations to a separate organization, We Fund The Wall, Inc. with a PO Box in Houston; The Daily Caller News Foundation has been unable to find any record of its existence.
  • Charity Watch President Daniel Borochoff says Kolfage’s new nonprofit raises a “huge red flag.”

The founder of the viral $20 million border wall GoFundMe campaign is refusing to answer basic questions about his new nonprofit organization that will use donor funds to construct a piecemeal wall mile-by-mile along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Triple-amputee Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage is asking donors to transfer their donations to We Build The Wall, Inc. following his announcement Friday that the federal government will not accept any funds from his viral fundraising campaign, despite his initial claim otherwise.

GoFundMe said Friday that donors will need to opt into transferring their donations to Kolfage’s new Florida-based nonprofit by April 10, when all remaining contributions will be automatically refunded.

Kolfage claims the bylaws of We Build The Wall, Inc. prevent him from taking any salary from donor funds that originate from GoFundMe. But Kolfage has refused to provide The Daily Caller News Foundation a copy of the nonprofit’s bylaws to corroborate his claim.

Kolfage’s statement omits the fact that he is now directing check donations to an entirely different organization, We Fund the Wall, Inc. with a PO Box in Houston.

Kolfage has ignored multiple inquiries from TheDCNF asking why he’s directing check donations to a separate organization based in a different state, and whether donations sent to We Fund the Wall, Inc. can be used to compensate him in any way shape or form.

US President Donald Trump speaks as he inspects border wall prototypes in San Diego, California on March 13, 2018. MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

US President Donald Trump speaks as he inspects border wall prototypes in San Diego, California on March 13, 2018. MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

It’s unclear how much money Kolfage has raised via check donations, but his tweets suggest it could be a substantial amount.

Furthermore, TheDCNF has been unable to find any record of We Fund the Wall, Inc.’s formal existence, and multiple inquiries requesting the organization’s founding documents have gone ignored.

Charity Watch President Daniel Borochoff told TheDCNF that raises a “huge red flag.”

“People should give right to the organization that they want to support. Why are they directing money to some other entity?” Borochoff said. “This money could get stolen or misdirected to be used for another purpose.”

“There could be some kind of misdirection of funds or something going on there that people might not be happy about,” Borochoff added. “They really need a good reason for doing that.”

Kolfage has also refused to address why he waited until Friday inform his donors about the existence of his new nonprofit organization, which was founded over two weeks ago on Dec. 28, according to Florida’s Division of Corporations.

Source: Florida Division of Corporations/Screenshot

The stated purpose for Kolfage’s nonprofit is: “funding, construction, administering, and maintaining a United States Southern Border Wall and the processes associated therewith,” according to its founding documents signed on Dec. 27.

This appears to show that Kolfage was aware the federal government would not be able to accept donations by Dec. 27 at the latest, but despite this, he knowingly raised $2.8 million on GoFundMe between that date and Friday, all the while telling donors that 100 percent of their donations would be handed over to the government for the purpose of funding a border wall.

Kolfage has ignored multiple inquiries asking why he waited over two weeks to inform his donors of his intention to transfer their contributions to his new nonprofit.

“We have contacted the Trump Administration to secure a point of contact where all the funds will go upon completion. When we get this information secured we will update,” Kolfage claimed at the onset of his fundraiser. (RELATED: Can The $13 Million GoFundMe For Trump’s Border Wall Actually Work?)

Kolfage now says his “highly experienced team is highly confident that we can complete significant elements of the wall in less time, and for less money, than the federal government.”

All contributions collected by Kolfage’s GoFundMe after Friday will be automatically routed to We Build The Wall, Inc., and Kolfage claimed Sunday that one-third of his 340,000 donors had already opted into the nonprofit.

Follow Andrew on Twitter. Contact Andrew securely at AndrewKerrNC@protonmail.com

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel