The impact of victims’ imagery on charity crowdfunding campaigns: How photos of victims doing nothing to help themselves elicit fewer donations

Gadi Buskila and Dikla Perez

As fundraising becomes more competitive, charitable organizations increasingly invest in maximizing the effectiveness of their appeals.
Buskila and Perez

Management Slant

  • When viewing campaign photos on charity crowdfunding platforms, donors are less likely to donate to campaigns featuring victims taking no action—versus taking action—to help themselves.
  • This effect is driven by donors’ perceptions that their donations will make a difference.
  • The effect mostly occurs when a sufficient portion of the funding goal has already been achieved, indicating that the expected impact of donations exceeds a minimum threshold.
  • In designing crowdfunding campaigns, images that do not include victims may be preferable to images showing victims who are not engaged in self-help.

Introduction

In recent years,...

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