• Solutions
    • Strategic Planning & Campaigns
    • Philanthropy Operations & Analytics
    • Giving Programs & Donor Engagement
  • Insights
    • Client Spotlights
    • Thought Leadership
  • About BWF
    • Our Team
    • Who We Serve
    • BWF News
    • Careers
  • Contact
  • Events
    • Webinars
BWF
{{firstname}}
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
BWF
  • Solutions
    • Strategic Planning & Campaigns
    • Philanthropy Operations & Analytics
    • Giving Programs & Donor Engagement
  • Insights
    • Client Spotlights
    • Thought Leadership
  • About BWF
    • Our Team
    • Who We Serve
    • BWF News
    • Careers
  • Contact
  • Events
    • Webinars
September 27, 2021
4 min read

Gender and Crowdfunding Report—BWF Perspective

In the age of digitally focused cause-driven social media campaigns, crowdfunding has emerged as an established and popular giving vehicle. The published report, “Gender and Crowdfunding,” details the research and key findings gained from this study by the Women’s Philanthropy Institute.

Gender and Crowdfunding Report—BWF Perspective
Written by
  • James Barnard
  • Emily Christaldi
Topics
Base & Mid-Level Giving Digital & Social Media

The COVID-19 global pandemic has impacted all aspects of society, resulting in lifestyle changes, unexpected unemployment, competitive housing markets, and more. While many of the impacts are challenging, the heightened importance on digital connectivity resulting from the pandemic is helping combat these repercussions. This renewed digital focus is moving our lives online in innovative ways, paving the way for more digital fundraising opportunities to help each other through these unprecedented times.

In this now heavily digital atmosphere flooded with causes and social media campaigns, crowdfunding has emerged as an established and popular giving vehicle. The Women’s Philanthropy Institute, a segment of the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, conducted a study examining the differences in gender giving and crowdfunding. The published report, “Gender and Crowdfunding,” details the research and key findings gained from the study.

Key Findings from the Report

  • Overall, while women and men contribute to crowdfunding at similar rates, nearly 1 in 3 women (31.1%) give to a crowdfunding campaign in a typical year. 40.8 percent have given to a crowdfunding campaign at some point in the past.
  • Women crowdfunding donors tend to be younger, have higher levels of education, and are more concentrated in the western U.S., as compared to women who do not give to crowdfunding campaigns.
  • Women tend to give to people or causes they are familiar with through crowdfunding:
    • Women contribute the most to crowdfunding campaigns for family members or close friends and for charitable organizations; they are less likely to contribute to for-profit crowdfunding ventures.
    • Women crowdfunding donors tend to cite traditional philanthropic motivations for making their contributions, such as believing a gift will make a difference or to remedy issues they care about. Women are less influenced by celebrities or social media influencers to give.
  • The study also uncovered barriers to women’s crowdfunding donations:
    • Women crowdfunding donors share information about causes and projects on social media but are reluctant to directly ask their networks to give.
    • While women say that crowdfunding can highlight and help donors connect to projects, they also express concerns about transparency and accountability.
  • Overall, the vast majority of women crowdfunding donors (94.6%) plan to maintain or increase their contributions to these campaigns in the near future.

Implications & Impact

While crowdfunding is hardly new, the COVID-19 pandemic has re-emphasized the need for even the most traditional fundraising organizations to move towards cause-based campaigns. Driving this shift is the unshakable truth that people want their philanthropy to make a difference. Moreover, they expect to be able to see the specific impact of their giving.

As detailed in the report, this is particularly true for women donors, though it is unlikely to be different to the experience sought by most donors.

Crowdfunding campaigns offer the opportunity to showcase a problem that donors can help to solve. They allow us to illustrate the tangible impact a donor can make, offering a deeper connection to the cause than a non-descript annual fund.

Ideas for Your Crowdfunding Program

Innovators in the higher education annual giving sector have made remarkable progress in organization-led crowdfunding in recent years. For excellent examples, we suggest reviewing UT Austin’s Hornraiser and UC Santa Cruz’s crowdfunding site.

As noted in the study, many crowdfunding donors are giving to crowdfunding campaigns that will support family members or close friends. Furthermore, while many women are willing to share campaigns on social media, they are less comfortable directly asking their friends to donate. Given that volunteer ambassadors are a critical component of many crowdfunding strategies, teams should consider what they are asking ambassadors to do. While social media coverage is a good thing, direct asks are likely to generate more gifts. Crowdfunding teams must work with ambassadors to provide the tools and training they need to feel comfortable directly requesting support.

Organizations should also consider prioritizing in-depth learning opportunities associated with causes and should focus on building trust through transparency. 53.3 percent of survey respondents were concerned about transparency, while 40.3 percent of survey respondents believed crowdfunding contains a lot of frivolous projects. Clear, concise, and authentic messaging is key to earning the trust of your audience—and project follow-up (i.e., sharing your proof of impact) is a vital step that you simply cannot afford to skip.

The real opportunity may be found in building community around causes. While crowdfunding is all about people coming together as a collective force for good, there is a risk of creating a transactional environment that will have the opposite effect. Using digital tools to support and enhance a genuine community of supporters can be powerful.

At the end of the day, people still give to people. Digital strategies like crowdfunding are simply another way to bring people together to support a shared passion.

 

Share this:

Related Thought Leadership

Giving USA 2022

Giving USA 2022 Report Insights

BWF is excited to share the key findings from this year’s Giving USA: The Annual Report on Philanthropy. Presented by the research team at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and the fundraising professionals at Giving USA Foundation, the Giving USA report is the longest-running, most extensive report on philanthropy in the United States. BWF is proud to be a member of The Giving Institute.

Read More

Cryptocurrency and the Nonprofit: A Beginner’s Guide

Cryptocurrency is all the rage these days amongst Millennials and Gen Z. How do we incorporate this newly created wealth to increase support with our other daily fundraising activities?

Read More
Human Services/Public Society Benefit

7 Accelerators for Faith-Based Fundraising

As philanthropy grows increasingly complex and high-net-worth giving continues to change the nonprofit landscape, faith-based charities have an opportunity to grow their fundraising production in very significant and achievable ways.

Read More
More Thought Leadership from BWF
Browse our thought leadership topics:
  • Base & Mid-Level Giving
  • Boards
  • Campaigns
  • Communications
  • Decision Science
  • Digital & Social Media
  • Donor Relations
  • Major & Principal Giving
  • Prospect Research & Management
  • Strategic Planning
  • Talent & Training
  • Technology & Operations
BWF

7900 Xerxes Avenue South
Suite 980
Minneapolis, MN 55431

800.921.0111

Contact Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
© 2022 BWF
Privacy Statement
Careers
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept,” you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie settingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt out of these cookies. Opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
__cfduid1 monthThe cookie is used by cdn services like CloudFare to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not correspond to any user ID in the web application and does not store any personally identifiable information.
__hssrcsessionThis cookie is set by Hubspot. According to their documentation, whenever HubSpot changes the session cookie, this cookie is also set to determine if the visitor has restarted their browser. If this cookie does not exist when HubSpot manages cookies, it is considered a new session.
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement1 yearThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Advertisement".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
CookieDurationDescription
__hssc30 minutesThis cookie is set by HubSpot. The purpose of the cookie is to keep track of sessions. This is used to determine if HubSpot should increment the session number and timestamps in the __hstc cookie. It contains the domain, viewCount (increments each pageView in a session), and session start timestamp.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
CookieDurationDescription
_gat1 minuteThis cookies is installed by Google Universal Analytics to throttle the request rate to limit the colllection of data on high traffic sites.
YSCsessionThis cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
__hstc1 year 24 daysThis cookie is set by Hubspot and is used for tracking visitors. It contains the domain, utk, initial timestamp (first visit), last timestamp (last visit), current timestamp (this visit), and session number (increments for each subsequent session).
_ga2 yearsThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gid1 dayThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the website is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages visted in an anonymous form.
hubspotutk1 year 24 daysThis cookie is used by HubSpot to keep track of the visitors to the website. This cookie is passed to Hubspot on form submission and used when deduplicating contacts.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
CookieDurationDescription
_fbp3 monthsThis cookie is set by Facebook to deliver advertisement when they are on Facebook or a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising after visiting this website.
fr3 monthsThe cookie is set by Facebook to show relevant advertisments to the users and measure and improve the advertisements. The cookie also tracks the behavior of the user across the web on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.
IDE1 year 24 daysUsed by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
test_cookie15 minutesThis cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE5 months 27 daysThis cookie is set by Youtube. Used to track the information of the embedded YouTube videos on a website.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
Save & Accept
Powered by CookieYes Logo