Given that volunteer ambassadors are a critical component of many crowdfunding strategies, teams should consider what they are asking ambassadors to do. Furthermore, while many women are willing to share campaigns on social media, they are less comfortable directly asking their friends to donate. For excellent examples, we suggest reviewing UT Austin’s Hornraiser and UC Santa Cruz’s crowdfunding site.Īs noted in the study, many crowdfunding donors are giving to crowdfunding campaigns that will support family members or close friends. Innovators in the higher education annual giving sector have made remarkable progress in organization-led crowdfunding in recent years. They allow us to illustrate the tangible impact a donor can make, offering a deeper connection to the cause than a non-descript annual fund. Moreover, they expect to be able to see the specific impact of their giving.Īs detailed in the report, this is particularly true for women donors, though it is unlikely to be different to the experience sought by most donors.Ĭrowdfunding campaigns offer the opportunity to showcase a problem that donors can help to solve. Driving this shift is the unshakable truth that people want their philanthropy to make a difference. While crowdfunding is hardly new, the COVID-19 pandemic has re-emphasized the need for even the most traditional fundraising organizations to move towards cause-based campaigns. Overall, the vast majority of women crowdfunding donors (94.6%) plan to maintain or increase their contributions to these campaigns in the near future.While women say that crowdfunding can highlight and help donors connect to projects, they also express concerns about transparency and accountability.Women crowdfunding donors share information about causes and projects on social media but are reluctant to directly ask their networks to give.The study also uncovered barriers to women’s crowdfunding donations:.Women are less influenced by celebrities or social media influencers to give. Women crowdfunding donors tend to cite traditional philanthropic motivations for making their contributions, such as believing a gift will make a difference or to remedy issues they care about.Women contribute the most to crowdfunding campaigns for family members or close friends and for charitable organizations they are less likely to contribute to for-profit crowdfunding ventures.Women tend to give to people or causes they are familiar with through crowdfunding:.Women crowdfunding donors tend to be younger, have higher levels of education, and are more concentrated in the western U.S., as compared to women who do not give to crowdfunding campaigns.40.8 percent have given to a crowdfunding campaign at some point in the past. Overall, while women and men contribute to crowdfunding at similar rates, nearly 1 in 3 women (31.1%) give to a crowdfunding campaign in a typical year.The published report, “ Gender and Crowdfunding,” details the research and key findings gained from the study.
The Women’s Philanthropy Institute, a segment of the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, conducted a study examining the differences in gender giving and crowdfunding. In this now heavily digital atmosphere flooded with causes and social media campaigns, crowdfunding has emerged as an established and popular giving vehicle. This renewed digital focus is moving our lives online in innovative ways, paving the way for more digital fundraising opportunities to help each other through these unprecedented times. While many of the impacts are challenging, the heightened importance on digital connectivity resulting from the pandemic is helping combat these repercussions. The COVID-19 global pandemic has impacted all aspects of society, resulting in lifestyle changes, unexpected unemployment, competitive housing markets, and more.