Donation campaigns on crowdfunding sites are created by individuals and can be promoted by sharing, tweeting and liking on social media, a relatively costless way of generating interest. Three Phases of GivingThe study found evidence that donation-based crowdfunding campaigns do not follow a steady pattern of collecting donations but instead have three phases. One influence on this is the bystander effect, a decision to donate only if the campaign goal is not achieved by others. With crowdfunding, viewers might like or share on social media to get satisfaction from participating but not actually donate to the campaign. This is an unexpected consequence of using social media as a promotion tool and results in fewer donations but more social media engagement, Ratchford said.