A field experiment on crowdfunding for a club good

Abstract

While increasingly popular in many domains crowdfunding remains largely un-derresearched and little is known about the best way to encourage participation. In a field experiment we vary suggested amounts and test different wordings for a campaign to finance a club good - an institute's summer party with free food, drinks, and music. We find that higher suggestions shift the median and the mode of gifts from €5 to €10 at a similar response rate. We also find evidence in favor of a "donation" frame that generates higher income than a "contribution" frame.