Can the Black Lives Matter Movement Reduce Racial Disparities? Evidence from Medical Crowdfunding

TL;DR

This study examines whether the Black Lives Matter movement influenced racial disparities in medical crowdfunding, finding that BLM protests notably reduced the fundraising gap, especially through non-Black donors and social media amplification.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel analysis linking BLM protests to changes in charitable giving disparities, employing innovative instrumental variable methods and high-frequency donation data.

Findings

BLM surge reduced racial fundraising gap by 50%

Non-Black donors contributed significantly to the reduction

Social media amplified the protests' impact

Abstract

Using high-frequency donation records from a major medical crowdfunding site and careful difference-in-difference analysis, we demonstrate that the 2020 BLM surge decreased the fundraising gap between Black and non-Black beneficiaries by around 50\%. The reduction is largely attributed to non-Black donors. Those beneficiaries in counties with moderate BLM activities were most impacted. We construct innovative instrumental variable approaches that utilize weekends and rainfall to identify the global and local effects of BLM protests. Results suggest a broad social movement has a greater influence on charitable-giving behavior than a local event. Social media significantly magnifies the impact of protests.