Trust-Building Strategies of Fundraising Consultants in Chinese Medical Crowdfunding Platforms: Qualitative Study

TL;DR

This study explores how fundraising consultants in Chinese medical crowdfunding platforms build trust with patients and their families through specific communication strategies.

Contribution

The study identifies and analyzes trust-building strategies used by fundraising consultants, which have not been previously explored in the literature.

Findings

Fundraising consultants use positive strategies like empathy and valid credentials to build trust and support platform sustainability.

Negative strategies may boost short-term crowdfunding but harm long-term platform credibility.

Three main themes emerged: initial communication, identifying doubts, and addressing doubts.

Abstract

In recent years, Chinese internet-based medical crowdfunding platforms have faced widespread public skepticism and a macrolevel climate of trust crisis, which has inevitably exacerbated distrust among patients and their families toward these platforms. In this context, fundraising consultants, as frontline executors who directly engage with patient families, play a pivotal role in the operational models of mainstream platforms in China, serving as a critical trust bridge between platforms and potential help-seekers. The core responsibilities of fundraising consultants extend beyond explaining platform rules to resolving the doubts of patients and their families through interpersonal interaction, building trust, and effectively mobilizing and assisting them in launching crowdfunding campaigns.

This study aims to explore the core strategies used by fundraising consultants to gain the trust of patients and their families and to deeply analyze the impact of these strategies on the sustainable development of medical crowdfunding platforms—areas that have not been explored in existing literature.

A phenomenological qualitative research design involving in-depth semistructured interviews was chosen. Purposeful sampling was used to obtain a heterogeneous sample, with 16 fundraising consultants from 4 Chinese internet medical crowdfunding platforms participating in the study. After reaching data saturation, 2 additional consultants were interviewed. Recruitment was terminated when no new themes emerged. Data analysis was based on the Colaizzi method.

In total, 16 fundraising consultants from 4 Chinese medical crowdfunding platforms participated in the study. Three main themes and nine subthemes emerged: (1) establishing initial communication (using scripted opening techniques to initiate conversations and expressing empathy and care), (2) identifying doubts (authenticity of identity, standardization of fund operations, and security of personal information), and (3) addressing doubts (presenting valid credentials, leveraging endorsements from medical institutions, displaying successful cases, and promising additional conditions).

The findings reveal that the trust-building strategies of fundraising consultants exhibit a dualistic divide between positive and negative approaches. Positive strategies effectively resolve patients’ trust barriers, accumulate a long-term reputation for platforms, and form a positive driving force for healthy development. Negative strategies, while potentially increasing crowdfunding initiation in the short term, severely damage platform credibility in the long run, becoming hidden dangers that hinder sustainable development. Based on these findings, this study proposes optimization suggestions to enhance platform social trust, promote the standardized and sustainable development of medical crowdfunding platforms, and construct a reliable social support network for patients in need.