Current Issue Summary
December 2022 (Vol. 62, Issue 4)
The Impact of Victims’ Imagery on Charity Crowdfunding Campaigns: How Photos of Victims Doing Nothing to Help Themselves Elicit Fewer Donations
As charity fundraising becomes more competitive, how the imagery is composed in crowdfunding campaigns requesting help for victims can make the difference between higher or lower donations. This study by Gadi Buskila and Dikla Perez (both of Bar-Ilan University, Israel) offers evidence for a discovery that has implications for both practice and theory: Campaigns with images that show victims as helpless attract fewer donations than those showing victims helping themselves. The finding is somewhat counterintuitive, in that a person who is portrayed as helping him/herself might be perceived as not needing aid.
The research draws from the “premise that a donor’s perceptions regarding victims’ responsibility for their own fate can refer not only to the actions that the victims might have taken to bring about their unfortunate circumstances, but also to the actions that they take to attempt to change their situation (Kogut, 2011),” the authors write. Their work also draws from the theory of perceived donation efficacy (PDE): “the extent to which donors believe that their donations to a cause will be effective.” The higher the PDE, the higher the likelihood donors will contribute more to a charity campaign, and vice versa.
This five-part investigation runs deep. Data was provided by GlobalGiving.org, an online global charity crowdfunding platform. The dataset covered 200 charity giving projects launched between December 2018 and December 2019 and funded by 5,031 donors. Independent judges — academic experts in psychology — evaluated the photos associated with the campaigns, rating them on a self-help scale. Additionally, a panel of 267 participants, all of whom had previously donated money to charity, rated their likelihood of donating. Another panel of 129 evaluated the mediating role of PDE. Measures included blame and responsibility (for the victim’s situation), and positive and negative emotions in reacting to the images.
Finally, the researchers tested whether the effect of self-help type on donation behavior is contingent on the portion of the funding goal achieved. They added a control condition in which campaign images did not feature victims at all. Among the implications:
- Donors are less likely to donate to campaigns featuring victims taking no action, versus taking action to help themselves.
- Donors’ perceptions that their donations will make a difference enhance charity outcomes, particularly when a sufficient portion of the funding goal has already been reached .
- In designing crowdfunding campaigns, it might be preferable to use images that do not include victims at all, rather than images showing victims who are not engaged in self-help.