Crowdfunding for Social Impact: Examining University-Led Initiatives

This study highlights the key role of crowdfunding in promoting social impactat Universities (Salem State University, Boston University and Babson Col-lege). Through analysis of funded campaigns, we identify key factors influenc-ing their success, including the importance of storytelling, institutional legiti-macy, and community network activation. Sentiment analysis using TextBlobrevealed that campaigns with a positive, and engaging narrative tended to per-form better, although some projects compensated for weak storytelling withother levers, such as mobilizing university communities. These results confirmthat universities can play a vital role in social entrepreneurship by using crowd-funding to fund impact initiatives while offering students a hands-on learningopportunity on the dynamics of participatory funding. However, the unevendistribution of funding observed highlights the need for university platformsto better adapt their evaluation criteria, to different types of projects, and tooffer specific support to project leaders from under-represented backgrounds.In conclusion, this study contributes to a better understanding of universitycrowdfunding and its potential to generate sustainable social impact, pavingthe way for future research into the mechanisms of institutional differentiationand the optimization of crowdfunding strategies in higher education

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