(CNN) Shay Khatiri woke up on his Jewish friend's couch to the devastating news. A mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue had left 11 people dead and several others injured.

"She told me what happened and she was just broken," Khatiri told CNN. "Seeing how upset she was, I wanted to donate to the congregation ."

But Khatiri didn't have much to give. The 29-year-old graduate student was crashing on his friend Sara Sirota's couch for a few weeks while saving up for a new apartment.

Shay Khatiri

"I thought to myself, I could donate $18 or $36 -- something like that. But that wouldn't make a huge impact," he said. "If I did something like this, maybe it could go viral and have a huge impact," he added.

By "this," he meant 'start a GoFundMe campaign.'

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