AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF DONOR AWARENESS, PREFERENCES AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS ONLINE CROWDFUNDING PLATFORMS

• Ankit Kumar Joshi

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Online crowdfunding has developed into an important digital mechanism through which individuals, organisations, entrepreneurs and social groups can mobilise relatively small contributions from a large number of people. The effectiveness of donation-oriented crowdfunding, however, depends substantially on whether potential donors are aware of the mechanism, trust the platform and campaign, perceive adequate transparency and security, and find the contribution process convenient. This study examines donor awareness, preferences and perceptions towards online crowdfunding platforms in India using a quantitative research framework. The research model considers awareness, trust, transparency, security, credibility, convenience and social impact as important explanatory dimensions, with future contribution intention as the principal behavioural outcome.

Out of the 200 questionnaires distributed, 150 completed responses were received and used for the study. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha, cross-tabulation, Chi-square, Pearson correlation, one-way ANOVA and regression analysis were used. The data indicate that 88% of respondents were aware of online crowdfunding and 54% reported previous contribution through an online crowdfunding platform. Medical campaigns were the most preferred category (36%), while UPI was the dominant preferred payment method (78%). The highest mean score among the major perception dimensions was social impact (3.76), followed by convenience (3.45) and transparency (3.43). Future contribution intention recorded a mean of 3.50 on a five-point scale.

Pearson correlation results show positive and statistically significant relationships between contribution intention and awareness (r = 0.647), trust (r = 0.620), transparency (r = 0.617), security (r = 0.562), credibility (r = 0.605), convenience (r = 0.540) and social impact (r = 0.489), all at the 5% level. A full six-factor regression model explained 58.5% of the variation in contribution intention, although the individual predictors were not statistically significant after being entered simultaneously, indicating substantial overlap among the perception dimensions. The paper concludes that improving verification, transparency, information quality, security and ease of digital contribution can strengthen donor confidence and participation.

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