Struggling, helping and adapting: Crowdfunding motivations and outcomes during the early US COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT: During the early months of COVID-19, many people in the US turned to charitable crowdfunding to seek and provide assistance. Little is known about the needs, hopes or experiences that motivated US pandemic crowdfunding and how these were correlated with campaign success. This study uses a mixed-methods data analysis of a randomised cluster sample of 919 US GoFundMe campaigns during the first 7 months of the pandemic. Overall, most campaigns performed poorly, and 38% got no donations at all. The largest proportion of campaigns aimed to address individual, acute financial struggles, often arising from considerable challenges accessing or qualifying for government assistance. These campaigns, as well as those involving campaigners and beneficiaries of colour, tended to be least successful. Qu

SUBMITTER: Kenworthy N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10072127 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature