Help yourself: Pictures of donation recipients engaged in physical self-help enhance donations on crowdfunding platforms

Dikla Perez, Nira Munichor and Gadi Buskila

Journal of Business Research, 2023, vol. 161, issue C

Abstract: Many charity organizations raise money through crowdfunding platforms, in which donors choose among large numbers of projects that compete for funds. Prior research suggests that photos used in a charity appeal substantially affect donation behavior. This study identifies a novel feature of campaign imagery that influences the donation decision: portrayal of victims engaged in different types of “self-help” actions. Specifically, two controlled experiments and an analysis of field data explore how prospective donors respond to fundraising campaign photos featuring either physical self-help, non-physical self-help, or no self-help. Results show that donors contribute more funds to campaigns that show victims engaged in physical self-help than to campaigns portraying victims engaged in non-physical self-help or no self-help. The findings also suggest that this influence is attributable to the sense of inspiration elicited by such images and is attenuated when the self-help behavior is perceived as inappropriate for the situation at hand.

Keywords: Donations; Self-help; Physical action; Crowdfunding; Inspiration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296323001844
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:161:y:2023:i:c:s0148296323001844

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.113826

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().