Name
AI-Generated Fundraising Campaigns: Enhancing Donations or Eroding Trust?
Date & Time
Tuesday, July 7, 2026, 2:35 PM - 3:00 PM
Description
We examine how the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in writing fundraising campaigns influences donation behavior. Analyzing over 117,000 real GoFundMe campaigns, we find that campaigns more similar to AI-generated text raise more money. We corroborate this result with a pre-registered online experiment, in which participants were shown campaigns written by either humans or AI. Again, we find that AI-written campaigns attract more donations than human-written ones. However, AI usage disclosure leads to opposite results: When donors knew that AI was used, donations dropped even below the level of human-written campaigns. Disclosing the use of AI in campaign creation may induce perceptions of inauthenticity or manipulation, thereby reducing donor trust and willingness to contribute.
Sasan Mansouri
Keywords
Generative AI, AI disclosure, Trust, Fundraising, Experimental evidence
Theme
BEHAVOURIAL FINANCE
Author 1
Sasan Mansouri
Author 2
Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi
Author 3
Amir Sepehri