AI-written appeals in crowdfunding and charity
Charitable giving and crowdfunding appear on 168 recent papers, with 44 in the last quarter against about 38 per quarter before, but only 23 of them carry an AI, text, narrative or image keyword. Campaign success depends on the story. If fundraisers now write with language models, do donors give more, and do they give to the right causes?
What prompted this
Since October 2025, 168 papers carry a crowdfunding, charitable-giving, donation, philanthropy or fundraising keyword (69 in economics journals, 50 in management, 32 in finance): "charitable giving" on 45, "crowdfunding" on 44, "equity crowdfunding" on 18, "crowdfunding campaign success" on 14. The quarter to September 2026 had 44 such papers against about 38 per quarter earlier. Only 23 of the 168 also carry an AI, text, image, narrative or language keyword.
Questions
- Since 2023, has the language of crowdfunding appeals converged on model-like text, and did success rates change for campaigns that use it?
- Do donors give more to polished appeals, and does that shift money from causes with less-skilled writers?
- Do platforms that offer built-in writing assistants see more campaigns and lower average pledges?
Data that could help
Campaign text and outcomes from crowdfunding platforms with timestamps, AI-text detectors, and platform feature release dates.
Next step
Score the text of campaigns on one platform for 2021–2025 with an AI-text detector and relate the score to funding success before and after 2023.