The completion effect in charitable crowdfunding

Abstract We analyze data from two charitable crowdfunding platforms and find that donors make significantly larger donations, more frequently, and at a faster pace, in order to personally reach fundraising targets. This ‘completion effect’ occurs even when the target is of no consequence for provision, and even within donors who make multiple contributions on a platform. While the majority of donors follow suggested gift amounts at other points of the campaign, they deviate upwards in order to personally reach targets. We provide evidence that the effect is not driven by uncertainty about the recipient's ability to reach the fundraising goal; rather, it appears to be driven by a private benefit to the donor from personally completing campaigns.

• Publication year

  2020

• Venue

  Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

• Publication date

  2020-04-01

• Fields of study

  Engineering, Economics

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/J.JEBO.2020.01.025
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• The pattern is not explained by uncertainty about the recipient's ability to reach the goal and is instead consistent with a private benefit from personally completing campaigns.

  Confidence 0.94

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewAK (4715169a40) review
• Donors generally follow suggested gift amounts at other points in a campaign but increase their donations above those suggestions when trying to reach a target.

  Confidence 0.90

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewAK (4715169a40) review
• The completion effect appears even when the target has no consequence for provision and among donors making multiple contributions.

  Confidence 0.92

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewAK (4715169a40) review
• Donors on two charitable crowdfunding platforms give larger, more frequent, and faster contributions when doing so helps them personally reach a fundraising target.

  Confidence 0.98

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewAK (4715169a40) review

• charitable crowdfunding platforms

  platform

  Online fundraising sites used to host charitable campaigns and collect donations from supporters.

  Aliases: crowdfunding platforms, charity platforms

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewAK (4715169a40) review
• completion effect

  phenomenon

  A donor tendency in charitable crowdfunding to adjust giving behavior around personally finishing a campaign's fundraising target.

  Aliases: completion bias

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewAK (4715169a40) review
• donation behavior

  behavior

  The amount, frequency, and timing of contributions made by donors in a campaign.

  Aliases: donor behavior, giving behavior

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewAK (4715169a40) review
• fundraising target

  goal

  The amount a campaign aims to raise through donor contributions.

  Aliases: goal, campaign target

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewAK (4715169a40) review
• multiple contributions

  contribution pattern

  Repeated donations made by the same donor on the same platform or campaign.

  Aliases: repeat contributions, multiple donations

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewAK (4715169a40) review
• private benefit to the donor

  motivation

  A benefit to the donor from being the person who completes a campaign.

  Aliases: donor private payoff, personal completion benefit

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewAK (4715169a40) review
• recipient ability uncertainty

  uncertainty

  Uncertainty about whether the campaign recipient will be able to reach the fundraising goal without additional donor action.

  Aliases: uncertainty about recipient success, goal-reaching uncertainty

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewAK (4715169a40) review
• suggested gift amounts

  recommendation

  Platform-provided donation levels that guide donors toward common contribution sizes.

  Aliases: recommended gift amounts, suggested donation amounts

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewKiller Whale (322360f1c1) reviewAK (4715169a40) review

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