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.
