Moment or Movement – An Empirical Analysis of the Heterogeneous Impact of Media Attention on Charitable Crowdfunding Campaigns

Abstract

For issues receiving heightened (social) media attention (e.g., natural disasters or social movements), charitable crowdfunding platforms offer an opportunity to generate donations. However, since media attention is typically short-lived, little is known about the long-term impact of temporary attention spikes on donation behavior for different types of crowdfunding campaigns. To address this gap, we examine how the Black Lives Matter movement and the associated social protest cycle after the death of George Floyd have influenced fundraising behavior for campaigns supporting the black community. By applying a differences-in-differences approach on a GoFundMe dataset, we find that campaigns with a personal funding goal only see an increase in donations for about three months, compared with over ten months for campaigns with a societal funding goal. If charitable crowdfunding platforms aim to help personal concerns, they need to signpost donors to such campaigns well beyond the temporal spike in the associated media attention.