Donors Giving To Orlando Victims’ Fund At A Record Rate

This is who we are in the face of tragedy.
Mourners gather at Lake Eola in Orlando for a candle light vigil for the victims of the terrorist massacre at the gay night club, Pulse, on June 12, 2016.
Mourners gather at Lake Eola in Orlando for a candle light vigil for the victims of the terrorist massacre at the gay night club, Pulse, on June 12, 2016.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Updated: June 14, 2016.

A GoFundMe initiative to raise money for the victims and families of the mass shooting at a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, raised $1 million faster than any campaign in the platform's history.

By Monday afternoon, just one day after the shooting that occurred early Sunday morning, the campaign had raised nearly $1.7 million from more than 42,000 separate donors.

Dan Pfeiffer, GoFundMe's vice president of communications, shared the news on Twitter Monday morning.

The campaign was started by Equality Florida, a LGBTQ rights nonprofit with offices in several Florida cities including Orlando.

In a statement on the campaign page, the organization stated that it's working with a "team of attorneys and experts" to distribute the funds. One partner is the National Center for Victims of Crime, which helped distribute funds to victims and their families after previous mass shootings in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Aurora, Colorado.

The campaign's stated goal is $5 million, double its original goal of $2.5 million. The goal was raised after GoFundMe saw the rate at which individuals were donating money.

There has been an outpouring of volunteer and charity support after the weekend's shooting, which left 49 dead and 53 injured. Orlando's Pulse club, where the attack occurred was a center of gay nightlife, and the nation's LGBTQ community has come together to grieve and send support to Orlando.

Orlando-area blood banks were reportedly "overwhelmed" by people wanting to donate blood in response to the tragedy, and have even asked potential donors to schedule appointments because their facilities were totally at capacity.

"Through our grief and through our tears, what remains absolutely constant is our unshakable resolve that we will uproot the bigotry, the fear and the hatred that is at the core of this horror we are enduring," Equality Florida posted on its Facebook page. "That is our pledge, to be unwavering…Love Wins."

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