What determines the success and failure of environmental crowdfunding?

Authors

Takahiro Kubo, University of Kent & University of Oxford & National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, JapanFollow
Diogo Veríssimo, University of Oxford
Shinya Uryu, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan
Taro Mieno, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Douglas MacMillan, University of Kent

ORCID IDs

Takahiro Kubo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4832-5539

Date of this Version

2021

Citation

Ambio 2021, 50:1659–1669

Comments

Copyright © The Author(s) 2021

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,

Abstract

Online crowdfunding can help address the perennial financial shortfalls in environmental conservation and management. Although many online crowdfunding campaigns fail to collect any funds due to not achieving their targets, little is known about what drives success. To address this knowledge gap, we applied a mixed-methods approach to data from 473 successful and failed campaigns hosted on the online crowdfunding platform Readyfor. We found that fundraising performance varied by topic, with campaigns on pet animal management outperforming those focussed on landscape management and sustainable use. We also found that marketing strategies associated with online findability and increased reach through social networks, increased fundraising success. However, the existence of other environmental campaigns running simultaneously, reduced the chance of success, which implies that the selecting popular topics does not always increase the likelihood of success due to increased competition. Wider applications of marketing could enhance the ability of environmental crowdfunding campaigns to raise funds.