Abstract

As more organizations support matters of diversity and equity, organizations need guidance on whether to be transparent about their equity-focused initiatives and appeal to users’ sense of social justice. This paper explores how information transparency affects backer responses to equity-related initiatives. The educational crowdfunding platform DonorsChoose launched an “equity-focused” initiative to highlight the platform’s commitment to equity in education and encourage donations towards that cause. Using an observational analysis and an experimental study, we find evidence that information transparency, i.e., explicitly promoting equity-focused projects, dampens overall donations because any change in donations associated with the equity-focused initiatives is insufficient to offset the decrease in other donations. However, we find evidence that distant donors are more responsive to the equity-focused recommendations, consistent with the hypothesis that a holistic mindset moderates the effectiveness of promoting equity-focused initiatives. This study provides insight into the trade-offs associated with information transparency for equity-related initiatives and the complicated relationship between organizations and equity-related initiatives.

DOI

10.17705/1jais.00916

Download

Share

COinS