Every Little Helps: Understanding Donor Behavior in a Crowdfunding Platform for Non-profits

Abstract

As crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter have gained in popularity, many non-profits have begun to use 'crowdfunding for non-profits' to fundraise for their projects. However, many projects fail to achieve their goals. Understanding donor behavior is essential to make fundraising successful. In this paper, we analyze donor behavior by collecting large-scale data from HAPPYBEAN, the largest crowdfunding platform for non-profits in Korea. In this study, we classified donors into five groups and analyzed donor behavior based on the following criteria, i.e., activeness, self-expression, and topical interests. We found that donors who contribute small amount of money and only a few times are critical for the projects' success. Our findings produce insights about donor behavior in crowdfunding for non-profits.