What Drives Engagement With Fundraising Messages on Social Media? Insights From an LLM ‐Assisted Approach

Nonprofit organizations increasingly rely on social media platforms for fundraising, yet little is known about which message features effectively drive online engagement. This study investigates how content cues including informativeness, emotional tone, urgency, and inclusiveness, together with format cues such as hashtags, emojis, and message length, shape audience reactions to charitable appeals. Drawing on 18,257 fundraising‐related posts on X (formerly Twitter), we applied a hybrid coding approach that combined manual annotation with large language model assistance. Our findings reveal that informativeness alone suppresses engagement (likes and shares) unless paired with positive emotionality, challenging the assumption of its uniform effectiveness. Engagement dimensions (likes, shares, and comments) respond differently to message features, reflecting distinct motivations. Additionally, credibility cues, such as verification status and source type (individual vs. organizational), play a critical role in shaping authenticity and audience impact. By uncovering these heterogeneous dynamics, the study conceptualizes engagement as multidimensional and offers nonprofit organizations practical guidance for tailoring appeals to align with specific fundraising objectives.