To quote or not to quote: The effect of direct-speech appeals on donation in charity crowdfunding platforms

On charity crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe, fundraisers largely rely on campaign appeals to engage and persuade potential donors. When appealing to prospective donors, fundraisers can either quote speeches from the beneficiaries to describe their dilemmas (direct-speech appeal) or present the same information descriptively without direct speech (non-direct-speech appeal). This research examines how, why and when direct-speech appeals affect the effectiveness of fundraising on charity crowdfunding platforms. In Study 1, we analyzed a secondary dataset of over 68,000 crowdfunding projects and found that direct-speech appeals are associated with larger donation amounts and more attracted donors. In Study 2, 3 and 4, we conducted controlled experiments to establish the causal relationship and explore the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions. The convergent results show that direct-speech appeals positively affect donation outcomes. The effect is driven by increased perceived closeness toward beneficiaries elicited by direct-speech appeals and it is more pronounced among individuals with high mental imagery tendency and when the donation cause is urgent. Our research contributes to the literature on charity crowdfunding platforms and provides actionable insights for crowdfunding fundraisers.

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