Education Crowdfunding and Student Performance: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Despite the growing popularity of online public funding for education (i.e., crowdfunding), controversy persists about whether teachers’ efforts to use this channel are justified and whether donations thus received can actually make a difference in students’ academic performance. We present the first empirical evidence of the positive influence of online education crowdfunding after teachers successfully raise funds. Using data from California public school teachers and their students, as well as the teachers’ fundraising activities on DonorsChoose.org , we find significant academic performance improvements among students after their teachers receive donations through this platform. Such improvements in students’ academic performance are stronger when more local donors participate in teachers’ fundraising campaigns. Notably, teachers who attempt to raise funds online but are unsuccessful are still able to improve their students’ performance. These findings not only document the positive impact of online education crowdfunding on students’ academic performance, but also demonstrate that such impacts are at least partially attributable to the nonfinancial motivational benefits on teachers from receiving such donations. Our study therefore contributes to the literature on crowdfunding, as well as the ongoing debates surrounding the financing of public education.

Empowering Education with Crowdfunding: The Role of Crowdfunded Resources and Crowd Screening

“… 12 To our knowledge, only two studies empirically investigate the connection between crowdfunding and education outcomes, but with different foci than our research. Whereas we focus on the role of crowd screening in improving student academic achievement and how project types can strengthen or weaken the effectiveness of crowd screening using stringent empirical models, neither Gao, Lin, and Wu (2021) nor Keppler, Li, and Wu (2020) discuss these factors in their research. Furthermore, ours is the only study to investigate the roles of both crowdfunded resources and crowd screening in public education crowdfunding.…”

Crowdfunding performance, market performance, and the moderating roles of product innovativeness and experts' judgment: Evidence from the movie industry

“…The rapid growth characterizing this phenomenon and its economic relevance have also merited overwhelming academic interest in the last decade. Researchers have started investigating a number of issues (see Messeni Petruzzelli et al, 2019), such as CF campaign design and performance (e.g., Ahlers et al, 2015; Bapna, 2019; Burtch et al, 2013; Butticé et al, 2017; Chan & Parhankangas, 2017; Colombo et al, 2015; Du et al, 2022; Gleasure et al, 2019; Mollick, 2014; Wei et al, 2021; Zhang & Chen, 2019), choice of funding mechanism (e.g., Cholakova & Clarysse, 2015), funders' behavior and incentives (e.g., Butticé et al, 2017; Colombo et al, 2015; Gleasure et al, 2019; Jiang et al, 2022; Kim, Park, et al, 2022b; Nielsen & Binder, 2021; Testa et al, 2020; Xiao et al, 2021; Zhang & Chen, 2019), as well as relationships and impacts on the financial system and society in general (e.g., Drover et al, 2017; Gao et al, 2021; Mollick & Nanda, 2016; Short et al, 2017; Stanko & Henard, 2017), among others.…”