In June 2018, a Facebook fundraiser started by a Silicon Valley couple with a goal of just $1,500 turned into the biggest fundraiser Facebook had ever seen. It raised more than $20 million for RAICES, a Texas nonprofit that provides legal help to immigrants, at the height of the outcry over families being separated at the US–Mexico border. In July 2018, RAICES offered to use the money to pay bond for detained parents so they could be reunited with their children.
How a $1,500 goal became $20 million
The fundraiser was launched by Charlotte and Dave Willner, a couple from the San Francisco Bay Area who had both worked at Facebook earlier in their careers. Disturbed by images of children being taken from their parents at the border, they set up a Facebook fundraiser titled "Reunite an immigrant parent with their child". Their target was $1,500, the minimum amount needed to post one immigration bond and release one parent from detention.
The appeal spread faster than anyone expected. Within days it had raised millions; at its peak, donations arrived at around $10,000 a minute. By the time it closed it had collected $20,773,431, according to Bowdoin College, where both Willners studied. Most gifts were small, averaging under $50, and they came from all 50 US states and about 30 countries. The total beat Facebook's previous fundraising record by roughly $18 million.
For RAICES (the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services), the windfall was enormous. Its annual budget at the time was around $8 million, and its executive director Jonathan Ryan said the fund had brought in more money than the organization had ever received.
The background: zero tolerance and family separation
The fundraiser was a response to the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy. In April 2018, the Justice Department directed that adults crossing the border without authorization be criminally prosecuted. Because children cannot be held in criminal custody with their parents, thousands of children were separated from their families, a practice that had in fact begun in some areas in 2017. More than 5,000 children were eventually found to have been separated.
Public anger grew through May and June 2018. On 20 June, President Trump signed an executive order ending family separations. Six days later, on 26 June, federal judge Dana Sabraw issued a nationwide injunction in the case Ms. L v. ICE, ordering the government to reunite children under five with their parents within 14 days, and older children within 30 days.
The government struggled to meet those deadlines. In many cases, parents had already been deported or released without clear records of where they had gone, which made reunification slow and complicated.
The $20 million bond offer
On 10 July 2018, the deadline for reuniting the youngest children, RAICES staged an event in Washington, DC, and presented a symbolic $20 million check. The group said it was ready to pay the bonds of detained parents, reportedly more than 2,500 mothers, so they could be released and reunited with their children while their immigration cases continued. "We will write every single individual bond check," Ryan told reporters.
RAICES framed the offer as a practical deal rather than only a protest. In a post on Twitter, the group wrote: "Trump says he's a deal-maker, here's his chance to cut a deal." The idea was that families could be reunited while immigration law was still enforced through the courts.
Thank you @DefineAmerican for all the support to make today happen. We’ll continue this fight, together. #ReuniteEveryChild https://t.co/CIZNdXnIGs
— RAICES (@RAICESTEXAS) July 11, 2018
(This post is no longer available on X.)
There is no public record of the administration accepting the collective offer. RAICES sent a formal letter setting out its plan and said that, if it got no answer, it would continue to pay bonds one by one, which is what it did.
How immigration bonds work
An immigration bond is similar in principle to bail. When US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds someone in detention, it or an immigration judge may set a bond amount; by law the minimum is $1,500, but bonds are often set far higher. Paying it allows the person to leave detention and live in the community while their case moves through immigration court.
If the person attends all their hearings, the bond money is generally returned when the case ends, which is why groups like RAICES see bond funds as a way to stretch donations further. The money can, in theory, be recycled to help another family later.
RAICES estimated it would need around $8,000 per family to cover bond and related costs. Ryan said any money not spent on bonds would go to transportation, support for families in the cities where they settled, and legal representation in immigration cases that could last months or years. For many families, having a lawyer is decisive: without one, people seeking asylum often have to argue complex cases alone, sometimes in a language they do not speak.
Photo by David McNew/Getty Images.
What the campaign changed
The fundraiser did not end the family separation crisis on its own. Reunification took months, and for some families far longer. But it changed several things.
- It funded real legal help. According to Bowdoin College, months later RAICES was still using the money, roughly three times its normal annual budget, mainly to pay bonds and lawyers for immigrants.
- It showed the power of small donations. Hundreds of thousands of modest gifts, most under $50, added up to a record. Charlotte Willner was later named by TIME among the most influential people on the internet.
- It made social media fundraising mainstream. The campaign showed that a personal appeal on a social network could raise as much as a large charity's annual appeal, prompting many nonprofits to invest in similar tools.
RAICES itself stayed in the headlines. Later in 2018, it publicly turned down a $250,000 donation from Salesforce because the company had a contract with US Customs and Border Protection, a sign of how political the issue had become.
How to give well when a crisis goes viral
Moments like June 2018 bring out huge generosity, and also scams that copy a popular cause. A few habits help your money do what you intend:
- Check who receives the money. Facebook fundraisers for registered nonprofits send funds straight to the charity; personal fundraisers do not. Look up the organization's registration and annual reports.
- Look for specific plans. RAICES explained exactly how the money would be used, from bonds to lawyers to transport. Vague promises are a warning sign.
- Consider local, specialist groups. Legal aid nonprofits near the border often know the system best and can act fastest.
- Give time and skills, too. Lawyers, interpreters and social workers are always needed, and volunteer hours can matter as much as money.
The story of the Willners' fundraiser is, at heart, about how quickly ordinary people can act when they see something they believe is wrong, and how a $1,500 idea can become a $20 million lifeline.
Sources: Bowdoin College: Behind the Willners' record-breaking $20M fundraiser; NBC News: Couple's fundraiser to reunite migrant families tops $20 million; KUT: How RAICES plans to spend $20 million in donations; Wikipedia: RAICES; Wikipedia: Trump administration family separation policy. Photos: RAICES Texas/Twitter; David McNew/Getty Images. Original report: Upworthy.
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