I would guess the general difference in expectation of outcomes help GoFundMe, and hurt Kickstarter and IndieGogo.
Kickstarter has an extremely narrow market of early adopters of tech. They also have developed a reputation of late shipping, or completely failed projects. The more this continues, the less people will be inclined to contribute. Even though failure SHOULD be expected, as these are nascent businesses, it is not.
Contrast that with GoFundMe. Their market is anyone who is charitable. They're not being sold on a product, they're being sold on someones struggles/death/illness/etc. If you are interested in donating to something, you don't question its chances of success. You aren't expecting anything in return. You are spending money to help someone else, not yourself (ignoring tax implications). In this case, if the donated amount fails to achieve the stated goal, barring fraud, there probably won't be any backlash. Everyone knows you can't cure diseases or other problems with money alone. Failure may not necessarily be expected, but is definitely more acceptable than in Kickstarter and Indiegogo's cases.
You're right in general. In fact, comparing Kickstarter and GoFundMe is a bit odd, because they're not competitors.
Kickstarter is more than just pre-shipping tech products like the Oculus Rift. In fact, they originally marketed it as a way for authors to pre-sell books, musicians to pre-sell albums, etc. and there's still a lot of that.
Kickstarter has an extremely narrow market of early adopters of tech. They also have developed a reputation of late shipping, or completely failed projects. The more this continues, the less people will be inclined to contribute. Even though failure SHOULD be expected, as these are nascent businesses, it is not.
Contrast that with GoFundMe. Their market is anyone who is charitable. They're not being sold on a product, they're being sold on someones struggles/death/illness/etc. If you are interested in donating to something, you don't question its chances of success. You aren't expecting anything in return. You are spending money to help someone else, not yourself (ignoring tax implications). In this case, if the donated amount fails to achieve the stated goal, barring fraud, there probably won't be any backlash. Everyone knows you can't cure diseases or other problems with money alone. Failure may not necessarily be expected, but is definitely more acceptable than in Kickstarter and Indiegogo's cases.