The effect of covid policy restrictions on donations during the sustainable and entrepreneurial context

Abstract

Using real platform data, this paper assesses donors’ reactions to a rare event; specifically, we demonstrate how donors were able to compensate for (or stabilize) healthcare deficits and policy restrictions used to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Based on a sample of 20,784 covid-related donation campaigns promoted on GoFundMe platform from January 30, 2020 to November 23, 2021, the paper shows that donors decided to donate based on campaign purpose and reliability: specifically, campaigns with the purpose to support hospitals or to buy healthcare materials in countries more affected by the pandemic received more funds. Moreover, the paper provides evidence of the impact of different government policy restrictions on campaign outcome in terms of amount raised and number of campaigns promoted in six European countries. As donations during COVID-19 were valuable (in particular, for public institutions) in terms of amount and timeliness, our findings offer valuable insights into how governments encouraged donations via fiscal incentives and policy restrictions.