Donor Retention in Online Crowdfunding Communities: A Case Study of DonorsChoose.org

Online crowdfunding platforms like DonorsChoose.org and Kickstarter allow specific projects to get funded by targeted contributions from a large number of people. Critical for the success of crowdfunding communities is recruitment and continued engagement of donors. With donor attrition rates above 70%, a significant challenge for online crowdfunding platforms as well as traditional offline non-profit organizations is the problem of donor retention. We present a large-scale study of millions of donors and donations on DonorsChoose.org, a crowdfunding platform for education projects. Studying an online crowdfunding platform allows for an unprecedented detailed view of how people direct their donations. We explore various factors impacting donor retention which allows us to identify different groups of donors and quantify their propensity to return for subsequent donations. We find that donors are more likely to return if they had a positive interaction with the receiver of the donation. We also show that this includes appropriate and timely recognition of their support as well as detailed communication of their impact. Finally, we discuss how our findings could inform steps to improve donor retention in crowdfunding communities and non-profit organizations.Comment: preprint version of WWW 2015 pape

How to Ask for a Favor: A Case Study on the Success of Altruistic Requests

Requests are at the core of many social media systems such as question & answer sites and online philanthropy communities. While the success of such requests is critical to the success of the community, the factors that lead community members to satisfy a request are largely unknown. Success of a request depends on factors like who is asking, how they are asking, when are they asking, and most critically what is being requested, ranging from small favors to substantial monetary donations. We present a case study of altruistic requests in an online community where all requests ask for the very same contribution and do not offer anything tangible in return, allowing us to disentangle what is requested from textual and social factors. Drawing from social psychology literature, we extract high-level social features from text that operationalize social relations between recipient and donor and demonstrate that these extracted relations are predictive of success. More specifically, we find that clearly communicating need through the narrative is essential and that that linguistic indications of gratitude, evidentiality, and generalized reciprocity, as well as high status of the asker further increase the likelihood of success. Building on this understanding, we develop a model that can predict the success of unseen requests, significantly improving over several baselines. We link these findings to research in psychology on helping behavior, providing a basis for further analysis of success in social media systems.Comment: To appear at ICWSM 2014. 10pp, 3 fig. Data and other info available at http://www.mpi-sws.org/~cristian/How_to_Ask_for_a_Favor.htm

Intrastate Crowdfunding in Alaska: Is There Security in Following the Crowd?

This Note analyzes the potential of crowdfunding for the State of Alaska. Crowdfunding can open up new sources of revenue for small businesses while simultaneously providing an avenue for Alaskans to invest in their own communities. The potential, however, must be weighed against the risk of fraud, poorly run businesses, and the lack of protection for investors. It is the responsibility of the Alaska legislature, the State’s securities administrators, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to ensure that investors are adequately protected. This Note discusses Alaska’s crowdfunding legislation, the Alaska Intrastate Crowdfunding Exemption, and recommends changes to the legislation that account for the risks involved in crowdfunding while still capturing its potential

Crowdfunding as a financing strategy and a marketing campaign

Crowdfunding is probably the fastest growing new way to raise funds, and it’s popularity among creative projects is no surprise. Since funding independent art productions has always been hard, a new financing strategy was welcome to the branch. However, users soon realized it’s even broader potential; crowdfunding does not only raise money, but also builds a community around the project. The objective of this thesis is to compile a campaign plan for crowdfunding the production of an animated series called Deadpan, but also to research the opportunities and threats of crowdfunding as a financing strategy. By comparing campaigns, crowdfunding platforms and earlier research I have concluded strategies for marketing the campaign and reaching donors, for running the campaign and for choosing the right platform for the project. The thesis is structured around the themes above, and I have also limited my research to reward-based crowdfunding of audiovisual projects, and chose to compare only two platforms; Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The conclusion of the research and information in the thesis is presented as a campaigner’s checklist, which is narrowed to five important stages of crowdfunding; planning, preparing, testing, execution and completing the campaign. Crowdfunding can be an effective way of funding projects, but it is also surprisingly laborious, and many campaigns fail because of overestimating their resources. On the basis of the checklist it should be possible to plan and execute a crowdfunding campaign, or contrarily, discover shortages in the project or the campaign plan.Crowdfunding är ett snabbt växande nytt finansieringssätt, och det är inte förvånande att den är väldigt populär bland kreativa projekt. På grund av att de sällan är vinstdrivande, har fristående konstprojekt alltid varit svåra att finansiera, och nya medel är välkomna till branschen. Användare har ändå snabbt insett att crowdfunding inte bara handlar om finansiering, utan om gemenskap och att bygga ett kollektiv. Syftet med detta arbete är att sammanfatta en kampanjplan för den animerade serien Deadpan, men också att undersöka möjligheter och hot i crowdfunding som ett finansieringsalternativ. Genom att jämföra kampanjer, plattformer och tidigare forskning har jag sammanfattat strategier för planeringen och genomförandet av kampanjen och dess marknadsföring. Arbetet är strukturerat kring temorna plattformen, bidragarna och kampanjen, och jag har också begränsat undersökningen till belöningsbaserad crowdfunding av audiovisuella projekt. Av crowdfunding plattformerna kommer jag att jämföra bara två; Kickstarter och Indiegogo. Informationen i arbetet är upplagt som en slags checklista, som innehåller fem viktiga skeden i kampanjens gång: planerandet, förberedandet, testandet, verkställandet och slutförandet av kampanjen. Crowdfunding kan vara ett effektivt sätt att finansiera fristående projekt, men det är också förvånansvärt tidskrävande, vilket leder till att många kampanjer misslyckas. Med hjälp av checklistan kan man antingen planera en lyckad kampanj eller upptäcka möjliga brister i projektet.Joukkorahoitus on luultavasti nopeimmin kasvava uusi rahoitustapa, eikä sen suosio luovalla alalla ole yllättävä. Uusi rahoitusmalli oli tervetullut markkinoille, koska itsenäisen taidehankkeen rahoittaminen on aina ollut hankalaa. Käyttäjät huomasivat kuitenkin nopeasti myös muita mahdollisuuksia mallissa; joukkorahoituksen ainoa käyttömahdollisuus ei ole rahoitus, vaan sillä myös yhteisöllistetään hankkeesta kiinnostuneet. Tämän työn tarkoitus on laatia kampanjasuunnitelma Deadpan -animaatiosarjan tuotannon joukkorahoittamiseen, mutta myös tutkia joukkorahoituksen käyttämisen muita mahdollisuuksia ja uhkia. Vertaamalla kampanjoita, joukkorahoitusalustoja sekä aiempia tutkimuksia olen löytänyt toimivia ratkaisuja kampanjan toteuttamisessa ja markkinoinnissa, oikean alustan valitsemisessa sekä lahjoittajien tavoittamisessa. Työ on rakennettu näiden teemojen ympärille, mutta taustaselvitys on rajattu audiovisuaalisten vastikkeellisten rahoituskampanjoiden ympärille. Joukkorahoitusalustoista vertaan myös vain kahta, Kickstarteria ja Indiegogota. Työn yhteenvetona esitän eräänlaisen kampanjoinnin muistilistan, johon on sisällytetty viisi joukkorahoituksessa tärkeää työvaihetta; suunnitelma, valmistautuminen, testaaminen, toteutus sekä suorittaminen. Joukkorahoitus voi olla toimiva rahoitusmalli, mutta se voi olla myös yllättävän työläs, mikä johtaa monen hankkeen epäonnistumiseen. Muistilistan avulla voi joko mahdollistaa joukkorahoituskampanjan toteutuksen tai paljastaa hankkeen mahdolliset puutteet