SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The crowdsourcing site where people seek contributions for school books or medical bills has a new campaign. It’s an effort to raise $9.7 million to keep artifacts belonging to Abraham Lincoln in his hometown.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation in Springfield, Illinois, has turned to GoFundMe to pay a loan from 2007 that covered artifacts belonging to the 16th president.
They include bloodied gloves Lincoln took to the theater the night he was shot and a stovepipe hat he purportedly wore.
Carla Knorowski is the foundation's CEO. She says if everyone donated "a Lincoln" from their pocketbooks (a $5 bill) the campaign would be over quickly.
The foundation paid $25 million for the well-known Taper Collection and borrowed $23 million. The GoFundMe effort raised nearly $5,000 by Saturday morning.