Guardians of Giving - An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship between Charitable Crowdfunding and Acquisitive Crime

When individuals find themselves in dire financial circumstances, like a cash-flow crisis, some respond by committing acquisitive crime. Informed by macro strain theory, charitable crowdfunding, an IS-enabled funding process, has the potential to mitigate this risk by offering a coping mechanism for people under financial pressure. This paper empirically analyzes the relationship between charitable crowdfunding activity and acquisitive crime by combining data from GoFundMe with crime data from the FBI and socioeconomic information for US counties. The regression results reveal a significant negative relationship between the number of charitable crowdfunding campaigns and acquisitive crime, especially for burglaries, thefts, and motor vehicle-thefts. This relationship is more pronounced in counties with a higher proportion of residents on comparably higher incomes, higher education and lower unemployment. Consistent with macro strain theory, the results further suggest that charitable crowdfunding can reduce negative emotions of fundraisers like sadness and fear. These findings highlight the potential of charitable crowdfunding to alleviate societal problems, and are relevant not only to researchers and crowdfunding platform operators but also to policymakers.