Disrupting Philanthropy? A Reality Check for Digital Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding promised to revolutionize philanthropy by using digital technology to make charitable giving cheaper, easier, and more accessible. Has this been realized in practice? We highlight three crucial questions for charity professionals and academic researchers to consider regarding crowdfunding’s “disruptive” capacity, and we answer them in light of nearly a decade of research on crowdfunding for health care and related personal costs. We argue that crowdfunding’s benefits have been largely overstated. Instead of offering a radically novel approach, it puts a digital spin on an outdated charity model. While potentially empowering fundraising recipients, it can significantly undermine their autonomy in practice. And although crowdfunding is commonly used to support health and medical costs, it promotes values and practices that ultimately harm public health systems. Our synthesis highlights the considerable progress scholars have made in understanding this extremely popular, if flawed, approach to charity, and we call for more critical analyses of crowdfunding as it continues to evolve, alongside research into alternative approaches to charitable giving.