Why we hide good deeds? The selfless and anonymous donation behavior in crowdfunding

Abstract

Donation has an important role in bridging the rich and poor gap and maintaining social stability. With the development of Fintech, selfless support in crowdfunding has become a new channel of donation. This paper uses Python to capture the data from ZhongChou.com and studies the donation behavior in crowdfunding. The results of our study show that the higher financing performance of a crowdfunding project is the result of the higher number of people who support the crowdfunding project selflessly and anonymously. The donation behavior of crowdfunding investors stems from social needs and thus shows the characteristics of “pro-sociality”. The anonymous donation behavior matches the specific target audience through signal burying. Further research shows that the impact of donation behavior on financing performance is significantly heterogeneous. In agricultural and public welfare projects, the effect of selfless donation and anonymous donation on financing performance is more significant. The donation behavior prompts the crowdfunding project to complete the financing target more quickly and get more time for over-funding.