Observations of non-linear information consumption in crowdfunding

Abstract

The number and scale of crowdfunding platforms has grown rapidly within a short period of time. While some of these platforms offer donors specific financial or material rewards, others ask donors to contribute to campaigns for charitable or philanthropic reasons. This fundamental difference means it is difficult to model interpersonal communication and information consumption in simple linear economic terms. Yet to date the dominant research paradigm for charitable crowdfunding has done exactly that. This study seeks to investigate and model non-linear information consumption based upon a field study of Pledgie.com, an established charitable crowdfunding platform. Quantitative analyses of data from over 5,000 individual crowdfunding campaigns reveal several curvilinear relationships between the information provided and the level of funding received. This suggests that information consumption by the donor community is more accurately modelled across two distinct stages, the first of which is discussion-based, the second of which is based on donation.