The Power of Storytelling in Influencing Social Crowdfunding Intention: A Case of a Non-Profit Organization in Indonesia

This study examines the effectiveness of storytelling in enhancing social crowdfunding donations for nonprofit organizations. Using a sample of 708 respondents, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is employed to analyze the relationships between storytelling, prosocial motivations, trust in a social crowdfunding platform, and social crowdfunding donation intentions. The findings demonstrate that storytelling positively influences pleasure-based (desire to help) and pressure-based (sense of obligation) prosocial motivations, ultimately driving intentions to donate to social crowdfunding. Interestingly, pressure-based motivation exerts a stronger effect on the intention to donate. Additionally, this study highlights the crucial mediating role of trust in the social crowdfunding platform, suggesting the importance of the platform’s credibility in connecting pleasure and pressure-based prosocial motivation on the intention to donate to social crowdfunding. This is the first study to investigate social crowdfunding through the lens of consumer storytelling theory and pleasure and pressure-based prosocial motivation theory.