The Effects of Moral Framing on Online Fundraising Outcomes: Evidence from GoFundMe Campaigns

TL;DR

This paper investigates how different moral framing strategies in online fundraising campaigns influence donation and support outcomes, revealing that negative harm-based framing and loyalty appeals can boost engagement but have nuanced effects.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the effects of moral framing in online fundraising, highlighting the differential impacts of care, fairness, and loyalty frames on campaign success.

Findings

Negative harm and unfairness framing increase donations and comments.

Loyalty framing correlates with more donations and messages.

Negative framing may reduce average donation size.

Abstract

This study examines the impact of moral framing on fundraising outcomes, including both monetary and social support, by analyzing a dataset of 14,088 campaigns posted on GoFundMe. We focused on three moral frames: care, fairness, and (ingroup) loyalty, and measured their presence in campaign appeals. Our results show that campaigns in the Emergency category are most influenced by moral framing. Generally, negatively framing appeals by emphasizing harm and unfairness effectively attracts more donations and comments from supporters. However, this approach can have a downside, as it may lead to a decrease in the average donation amount per donor. Additionally, we found that loyalty framing was positively associated with receiving more donations and messages across all fundraising categories. This research extends existing literature on framing and communication strategies related to fundraising and their impact. We also propose practical implications for designing features of online fundraising platforms to better support both fundraisers and supporters.