Charity fundraising is becoming increasingly reliant on online platforms such as crowdfunding platforms. However, overwhelmingly, crowdfunding campaigns are not meeting their goals. Therefore, it is imperative to examine how the success of charity fundraising campaigns can be improved. In this paper, we focus on the design of project images on a crowdfunding website, which portray the themes and content of the projects. Employing the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, we investigate the relationships between image attributes (S) and image emotions (O), and between image emotions (O) and campaign outcomes (R). We developed and trained a deep neural network model to identify the emotions conveyed in the images, and then implemented it to analyze project images from a popular crowdfunding platform. We applied the obtained image emotions together with the objective image attributes and the project outcome metrics to explore from a design perspective, what image attributes evoke image emotions, and how image emotions are related to the success of charity fundraising projects. Our results confirm these relationships and further suggest that the roles of image emotions on the success of crowdfunding campaigns vary with project characteristics such as the project budget and category. In addition, the image emotions of competing projects on the crowdfunding platform were found to reduce the project’s performance. In an extended study, we conducted an online randomized controlled experiment by manipulating image attributes to reexamine the causal relationships and verify the mediating roles of positive and negative empathies between image emotions and campaign outcomes. This research contributes to the charity fundraising literature from a novel perspective of emotions in project images. It presents new and unique findings regarding the mediation roles of positive and negative empathies and the limitations of the emotion of sadness in certain types of charity fundraising. In addition, our findings provide useful insights for practitioners seeking to design successful online charity campaigns.

中文翻译：

---

价值一千的图片：项目图片中的情感如何驱动在线慈善筹款活动的成功？图像设计视角

慈善筹款越来越依赖于众筹平台等网络平台。然而，绝大多数情况下，众筹活动并没有达到他们的目标。因此，有必要研究如何提高慈善筹款活动的成功率。在本文中，我们专注于众筹网站上项目图像的设计，它描绘了项目的主题和内容。采用刺激-有机体-反应 (SOR) 模型，我们研究了图像属性 (S) 和图像情感 (O) 之间的关系，以及图像情感 (O) 和活动结果 (R) 之间的关系。我们开发并训练了一个深度神经网络模型来识别图像中传达的情绪，然后实施它来分析来自一个流行的众筹平台的项目图像。我们将获得的图像情感与客观图像属性和项目结果指标一起应用，从设计的角度探索哪些图像属性会唤起图像情感，以及图像情感与慈善筹款项目的成功有何关系。我们的结果证实了这些关系，并进一步表明图像情感对众筹活动成功的作用因项目预算和类别等项目特征而异。此外，众筹平台上竞争项目的形象情感被发现会降低项目的绩效。在一项扩展研究中，我们通过操纵图像属性进行了一项在线随机对照实验，以重新审视因果关系，并验证积极和消极共情在图像情绪和活动结果之间的中介作用。这项研究从项目图像中情感的新颖角度为慈善筹款文献做出了贡献。它提出了关于积极和消极共情的中介作用以及悲伤情绪在某些类型的慈善筹款活动中的局限性的新的和独特的发现。此外，我们的研究结果为寻求设计成功的在线慈善活动的从业者提供了有用的见解。它提出了关于积极和消极共情的中介作用以及悲伤情绪在某些类型的慈善筹款活动中的局限性的新的和独特的发现。此外，我们的研究结果为寻求设计成功的在线慈善活动的从业者提供了有用的见解。它提出了关于积极和消极共情的中介作用以及悲伤情绪在某些类型的慈善筹款活动中的局限性的新的和独特的发现。此外，我们的研究结果为寻求设计成功的在线慈善活动的从业者提供了有用的见解。