Online crowdfunding platforms have enabled a teacher in great need of classroom supplies to reach potential donors far beyond the school community. Yet access to more donors does not automatically eliminate the disparities that shape which projects receive funding.
That challenge is at the heart of research led by Amin Sabzehzar, assistant professor at Tulane University, who began studying educational crowdfunding as a doctoral student advised by Kevin Hong, associate dean for research, Herbert Centennial Endowed Chair and professor of business technology at the University of Miami Business School.
Sabzehzar, the paper's first author, and Hong, along with Gordon Burtch of Boston University and Raghu Santanam of Arizona State University, examined whether giving donors information about students' disadvantaged backgrounds could help reduce disparities by directing more resources to classrooms serving students with greater needs. They studied the "equity focus" label used by DonorsChoose, a crowdfunding platform where public school teachers request donations for classroom projects.
The researchers found that equity appeals can influence giving, but how well they work depends on the type of disadvantage the label highlights.
Can a label help close a funding gap?
DonorsChoose lets teachers create fundraising campaigns for classroom needs, from books and technology to art supplies. The platform's equity focus label identifies projects at schools where at least half of students are Black, Latino, Native American, Pacific Islander, or multiracial and at least half qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
DonorsChoose was created in part to connect resources with classrooms that need them, yet funding gaps can still emerge between projects serving different populations.
"If the platform's goal is to alleviate inequality, then we want to understand whether these kinds of interventions actually work," Hong said.
To isolate the label's effect, the researchers used a method called regression discontinuity, comparing otherwise similar projects at schools that fell just above and below each of the two eligibility thresholds.
The type of disadvantage matters
The clearest finding emerged for projects receiving the equity designation because of the percentage of students from low-income households.
When the label signaled economic disadvantage, donors responded positively, and projects experienced stronger fundraising outcomes.
"We see a strong effect on the poverty dimension," Sabzehzar said. "When we look at the racial minority dimension, the effect becomes much more dependent on who the donors are and the communities they come from."
The researchers also found that a donor community's own characteristics could influence its response to an equity appeal. Communities with lower incomes showed stronger responses to signals of economic disadvantage, while more racially diverse communities responded more positively to signals involving racial minority students.
Designing platforms around evidence
The findings raise an important question for organizations using labels, badges, recommendations or other digital cues to influence behavior: What should they do when the same intervention works differently across audiences?
Hong cautions against extending the study's findings indiscriminately to other settings. A label identifying a classroom serving disadvantaged students operates in a different context from labels used on commercial platforms.
For educational crowdfunding platforms, however, the research offers practical possibilities.
Where a label alone does not meaningfully change giving behavior, platforms could explore other mechanisms, such as matching donations or providing seed funding to projects serving disadvantaged populations, Sabzehzar said.
"If signaling is effective, then use signaling," he said. "If signaling isn't effective for a particular group, maybe there are other mechanisms the platform can use."
A response that can change over time
Attitudes toward equity, inequality and charitable giving can change along with social and economic conditions. Hong and Sabzehzar said future research could examine whether responses to equity interventions shift over time.
For Hong, the value of the research lies in providing evidence that can help organizations make those decisions thoughtfully, particularly on subjects that can generate strong opinions.
"We as researchers seek to provide an unbiased account and interpretation of the data through rigorous analyses, and I think these are conversations worth having," Hong said.
For digital platforms trying to distribute resources more equitably, understanding who receives a message, how they interpret it and whether it changes behavior can help design interventions that translate good intentions into measurable results.
