Scholars: Affective Economies in Crowdfunding for Cancer

Crowdfunding is a form of alternative finance wherein individuals appeal for small donations via a third-party online platform. Originally intended to help artists and entrepreneurs fund creative projects, U.S. crowdfunding economies are now dominated by campaigns to help patients and their families afford health care costs. Of the 250 million new campaigns launched annually to offset costs related to medical treatment, almost half are fundraisers for individuals diagnosed with cancer.

While some crowdfunding appeals inspire the sympathy and support of a large public, most fail to widely circulate or raise significant sums. The median crowdfunding campaign for a cancer patient receives just 25% of its funding target. Crowdfunding for cancer thus represents an increasingly important but understudied phenomenon.

This project investigates the social dynamics shaping this new form of micro-philanthropy by researching how and why donors’ sentiments and emotions motivate giving in some crowdfunding campaigns but not in others, creating significant disparities among cancer patients. It also explores how crowdfunding impacts cancer patients, and the ways in which the fundraising process reshapes the experience of being ill.

Project outcomes will contribute to a broader understanding of how the growth of crowdfunding is shifting cultural perceptions regarding health care, the meaning of illness, and the rights and social roles of the sick.

This study draws data from participant observations, ethnographic interviewing, and focus group interviews with cancer patients, donors to crowdfunding campaigns, social workers and patient navigators, and employees of crowdfunding corporations. It has three main objectives: (1) To investigate how crowdfunding exchanges are informed by the digital interfaces and online environments where campaigns are created and circulated; (2) To inquire into how the experience of illness is reshaped by the experience of crowdfunding; and (3) To investigate how crowdfunding campaigns affect cancer patients’ access to health care.

This will provide new insights in two domains relevant to public interest and national policy debates. First, it sheds light on the understudied impacts of new digital platforms on society and culture. Second, it develops new knowledge regarding the predicaments that increasing health care costs create for sick and disabled Americans.

This project contributes to Science and Technology Studies by advancing scholarship on technological transformations and their unintended consequences. It contributes to Anthropology by developing new insights regarding the impacts of cultural practices on the experience of illness, health outcomes, and health disparities.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.