Personal connections

In many cases, the reviewed campaigns either assumed that only friends and family members of the campaign's recipient would be engaging with the content or made special appeals to friends and families. Often campaigns appealed to friends and families in the tone of an open letter to these groups. In others, the assumption that friends and families were a special audience for these appeals was stated directly, as in a campaign that began: “I’m guessing that if you’re reading this, you know and love Steve” (Y23). Readers in other cases were asked to share the campaign with those who knew the recipient. Many of these campaigns assumed that the reader was already familiar with the recipient's medical needs and so used the campaign largely as a means of organising friends and families in their giving activities.

Personal relationships with those in need were often framed explicitly as creating an obligation to donate. As one campaigner put it: “I truly believe that when we have someone we care about in need, we should gather around them as one big family and help as much as possible” (GFM20). Another put the requirement to give in the form of an imperative: “[the home team of her friends, colleagues and family] must be there for as long as she needs us” (F6). In one case, the campaigner recognised that a request for financial help could place a strain on friendships, and stressed the importance of these relationships over his need: “Dear friends and family who are reading this, please know that I sincerely hope you feel under no obligation whatsoever, and that thoughts, prayers, kindness, insights, and friendship are as deeply important to me as financial help” (GFM16). For this campaigner, the love and support of friends and families could be expressed in non-financial means, the importance of which was stressed. This idea was echoed in other campaigns, where non-financial support such as prayers were asked of loved ones and it was even expressed that ‘family and community support is essential to healing process’ (Y22).

Depth of need

Many campaigns sought to motivate donors' giving through a detailed description of the recipient's medical need. Often, they sought to give a history of the recipient's medical treatment to date, in part to introduce the reader to the process by which the need has arisen. These descriptions can be graphic: ‘So far Celine has been in the OR [operating room] for surgery 3 times, each time having more and more of her leg tissue removed, making the wound larger and more severe’ (GFM9). Similarly, a young woman is described as having experienced ‘a broken shoulder, broken ribs, a punctured lung and several broken vertebrae, partially severing her spine’ from a car accident (Y8). The long-term, chronic nature of illness was also described in some cases, as with one who stated that: “Ever since I can remember I’ve been living in pain” (Y16). Another campaigner attributed her medical need to barriers faced in the Canadian healthcare system: “not one MD [medical doctor] has been able to help me. One even told me to seek a psychologist. With respect to the diagnosis and care of Lyme Disease, the Canadian healthcare system has been, for me, a nightmare” (GFM6).

Campaigners also stressed the impact of medical need on others. Young persons, and especially children, were framed as being particularly in need of help. In one case, a young child's life-threatening illness was movingly described through the child crying ‘Mommy Daddy save me’ (G10). Children were often described as deserving more years of life: ‘She is only 15 years old and has a long happy life to live’ (G9). The tone of these messages was that suffering was especially unacceptable in children, as when: ‘no three year old should have to know the inside of a hospital as well as Ryan does, because no parent should have to know how to answer the kind of questions that Ryan’s parents are having to answer’ (G1). Even adults were flagged as suffering too early in their lives, as in the case of one recipient who is ‘only 32 and was in worse shape than most people several times his age’ (Y13). Parents of young children were similarly identified as having greater need of help, with the impacts of parents' loss of income due to illness or absence from their family stressed. In one case, fundraising for an ill parent was justified in part by the recipient having children with their own medical crises. In this case, ‘The loss of an income, no matter how temporary, will be devastating to this hardworking, caring family’ (F1).

Campaigns often pivoted between detailed characterisations of recipients' ill health and how financial assistance could alleviate that need. Many campaigners described crowdfunding as a last resort. Their campaigns had the practical benefit of helping reduce the recipient's illness and/or improving health and well-being: “I need your support now as I fight for my life. No donation is too small; and is very much appreciated” (G1 2). Several campaigns detailed existing support from friends and families but stressed the need of additional help: ‘Many people have asked how they can help. At this point, financial assistance is what’s needed’ (Y9). Similarly, “My family and I are here to support her but there is no doubt she requires financial assistance in order to deal with the foreseeable financial commitments” (F4). In other cases, this potential benefit was stated as a simple fact, where readers are invited ‘to join us in helping Al and his family’ (Y12). In these ways, the good that could be done via these donations was taken self-evidently to justify donating.

Giving back

Many campaigns emphasised the selfless characteristics of recipients and the good works that they have engaged in the past. Recipients were described as being ‘compassionate, loving, giving and one of the most caring women on this planet’ (GFM2), as having ‘a huge heart’ (GFM20) and ‘giving heart’ (Y5), ‘unselfish, kind, caring and giving’ (F7), a ‘man who puts others first’ (F1) and ‘literally one of those people who would give you the shirt off his back’ (F10). A typical campaign described the activities that the recipients engaged in great detail: ‘loading (almost too) many children into their adventure van, selflessly shuttling them home and on play dates. They are front and centre at all of our events, volunteering by sharing their time, knowledge and creations. “Come on over!” is their most common phrase, as they have been a social hub of our class and community’ (G8). The good works described in these campaigns included both those targeting friends, family and community members, and also those directed at strangers and persons in need regardless of personal connections.

In some cases, the past efforts of the recipients on behalf of others were used as a rationale for the reader to contribute to the crowdfunding campaign. Because of the ‘inspiring’ work that she/he had done for others, a campaign noted the recipient ‘deserves us to all rally together to help her fight’ (GFM2). Similarly, another recipient ‘would stop at nothing to help a friend or person in need’ and therefore, ‘Now it is our turn to help’ (Y12). Other campaigns described the recipient as running up a line of credit of good works that justified help now that the campaigner, later in life, was in a position of need. For example, one recipient was described as a ‘person who was always there for others when needed, and now its come to a time in his life where he needs us’ (GFM12). Similarly, donations were justified as a reward for past help: ‘Let us show them that generosity of spirit is rewarded in this crazy world’ (G8). Parents' good works could justify help for their children as well, as in the case of one campaign where the parents of a child with cancer had been ‘supporting cancer research selflessly’ (G1). The reluctance of one generous recipient to accept help, always preferring to give help to others, was presented in another campaign as creating a ‘chance to show our appreciation and gratitude towards such a caring individual’ (F14).