Mapping philanthropic support of science.

While philanthropic support for science has increased in the past decade, there is limited quantitative knowledge about the patterns that characterize it and the mechanisms that drive its distribution. Here, we map philanthropic funding to universities and research institutions based on IRS tax forms from 685,397 non-profit organizations. We identify nearly one million grants supporting institutions involved in science and higher education, finding that in volume and scope, philanthropy is a significant source of funds, reaching an amount that rivals some of the key federal agencies like the NSF and NIH. Our analysis also reveals that philanthropic funders tend to focus locally, indicating that criteria beyond research excellence play an important role in funding decisions, and that funding relationships are stable, i.e. once a grant-giving relationship begins, it tends to continue in time. Finally, we show that the bipartite funder-recipient network displays a highly overrepresented motif indicating that funders who share one recipient also share other recipients and we show that this motif contains predictive power for future funding relationships. We discuss the policy implications of our findings on inequality in science, scientific progress, and the role of quantitative approaches to philanthropy.

A critical analysis of trans-visibility through online medical crowdfunding.

In contexts where many people face barriers to accessing gender-affirming care through public systems, some turn to online crowdfunding to fundraise for private care pathways. Crowdfunding platforms invite people to share personal information, stories, and photos publicly, in order to elicit donations. In this article we draw on empirical data from a multimethodological three-year study of medical crowdfunding in Aotearoa New Zealand, with a focus on people crowdfunding for medical transition services. We apply a lens of 'visibility' to analysis of focus groups, interviews, case studies, and campaign pages, presenting findings on who was present and absent (with a focus on binary gender, and whiteness), and who was the assumed or expected audience (with a focus on cis publics). We describe how campaigns were defined by efforts to make trans bodies legible, and campaign requests competitive, through reference to narrow and medicalised frames of dysphoria, suffering, and transformation via medical intervention. We contribute to more comparative work in the literature on crowdfunding by highlighting how these globalised digital technologies are situated in the particular (demographic, cultural, and structural) contexts of Aotearoa New Zealand. We call attention to crowdfunding as a relational practice, in which the public marketisation of the self can have both individual consequences related to privacy and outing, and social consequences, in the reinforcing of trans-normativities. Overall we argue that although crowdfunding represents an adaptive strategy for trans people trying meet their own needs, it ultimately contributes to a type of trans-visibility which is both risky and limiting.

The WHO Foundation in global health governance: Depoliticizing corporate philanthropy.

The creation of the WHO Foundation during the COVID-19 pandemic represents a significant institutional development in the politics of financing the World Health Organization (WHO). In the context of longstanding acute financial pressures, the objective of the WHO Foundation is to widen WHO's resource base by attracting philanthropic donations from the commercial sector. In placing funding decisions 'at one remove' from WHO, the stated expectation is that the WHO Foundation will act as an intermediary, insulating the WHO from potential conflicts of interest and reputational risk through a combination of strategic distance from WHO and proximity with its norms and rules of engagement with non-state actors. Yet, whether this model has translated into practice remains understudied. In this article, we focus on emerging institutional practices within the WHO Foundation, highlighting a drift from its stated governance model. Based on analysis of WHO Foundation documents, we demonstrate how due diligence and transparency practices within the Foundation have been redesigned in ways that contradict or subvert its claims to applying alignment with WHO's governance norms, notably relating to its engagement with health harming industries such as alcohol and petrochemical companies. While this situation may seem paradoxical, we argue that, in placing funding decisions 'at one remove' from the formal institutions and structures of WHO, the creation of the Foundation has served to displace this issue to a more secluded arena where drifts in practice are less exposed to political oversight and scrutiny. Focusing on the discursive aspects of this process of depoliticisation, we contend that the Foundation has strategically managed 'fictional expectations' of accountable and transparent governance in order to mitigate concerns about its mandate and functions. This assessment provides new and important insights into the depoliticizing functions of the WHO Foundation and the significant implications this may have for global health governance.

LGBTQ+ inequity in crowdfunding cancer costs: The influence of online reach and LGBTQ+ state policy.

BACKGROUND: Emerging literature suggests that LGBTQ+ cancer survivors are more likely to experience financial burden than non-LGBTQ+ survivors. However, LGBTQ+ cancer survivors experience with cost-coping behaviors such as crowdfunding is understudied. METHODS: We aimed to assess LGBTQ+ inequity in cancer crowdfunding by combining community-engaged and technology-based methods. Crowdfunding campaigns were web-scraped from GoFundMe and classified as cancer-related and LGBTQ+ or non-LGBTQ+ using term dictionaries. Bivariate analyses and generalized linear models were used to assess differential effects in total goal amount raised by LGBTQ+ status. Stratified models were run by online reach and LGBTQ+ inclusivity of state policy. RESULTS: A total of N = 188,342 active cancer-related crowdfunding campaigns were web-scraped from GoFundMe in November 2022, of which N = 535 were LGBTQ+ and ranged from 2014 to 2022. In multivariable models of recent campaigns (2019-2022), LGBTQ+ campaigns raised $1608 (95% CI: -2139, -1077) less than non-LGBTQ+ campaigns. LGBTQ+ campaigns with low (26-45 donors), moderate (46-87 donors), and high (88-240 donors) online reach raised on average $1152 (95% CI: -$1589, -$716), $1050 (95% CI: -$1737, -$364), and $2655 (95% CI: -$4312, -$998) less than non-LGBTQ+ campaigns respectively. When stratified by LGBTQ+ inclusivity of state level policy states with anti-LGBTQ+ policy/lacking equitable policy raised on average $1910 (95% CI: -2640, -1182) less than non-LGBTQ+ campaigns from the same states. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Our findings revealed LGBTQ+ inequity in cancer-related crowdfunding, suggesting that LGBTQ+ cancer survivors may be less able to address financial burden via crowdfunding in comparison to non-LGBTQ+ cancer survivors-potentially widening existing economic inequities.

Philanthropic support of academic programs.

Academic surgical departments must subsidize the research mission, as most funded research does not fully support the faculty effort and true costs of the investigation. Most departments support their research program with the margin from clinical revenue; however, increased pressure on clinical income poses a challenge to this strategy. Philanthropy is an increasingly important revenue source to fund academic missions. The opportunities and challenges of this funding source are discussed in this article.

Access to digital finance: Equity crowdfunding across countries and platforms.

Financing entrepreneurship spurs innovation and economic growth. Digital financial platforms that crowdfund equity for entrepreneurs have emerged globally, yet they remain poorly understood. We model equity crowdfunding in terms of the relationship between the number of investors and the amount of money raised per pitch. We examine heterogeneity in the average amount raised per pitch that is associated with differences across three countries and seven platforms. Using a novel dataset of successful fundraising on the most prominent platforms in the UK, Germany, and the USA, we find the underlying relationship between the number of investors and the amount of money raised for entrepreneurs is loglinear, with a coefficient less than one and concave to the origin. We identify significant variation in the average amount invested in each pitch across countries and platforms. Our findings have implications for market actors as well as regulators who set competitive frameworks.

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation's philanthropic support for neuropsychiatric research.

In the 36 years since its founding, the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) has become one of the world's largest non-government funders of grants for neuropsychiatric research. A number of lessons can be drawn from the BBRF experience. One is that scientific competence in the organization, and full control over selection of grantees, has always resided in a Scientific Council composed of leaders in the field. Fund-raising has been conducted separately, and all public dollars contributed have been used to fund grants. The Council has sought to support the best research, no matter who is doing it or where it is being done. Over 80% of 6300 grants awarded have jump-started the careers of young investigators judged to demonstrate unusual promise. These early-career grants have been the equivalent of seed funding, enabling the best and brightest entrants to the field to perform research that, if successful, can provide a basis for much larger, career-sustaining grants. Much of the funded research has been basic research, although many contributions leading to clinical advances have also resulted from BBRF grants. BBRF has learned that it pays to have a diversified research portfolio, with thousands of grantees attacking the problem of mental illness from many different angles. The Foundation's experience also demonstrates the power of patient-inspired philanthropic support. Donors repeatedly express satisfaction that some aspect of mental illness that they care deeply about is being addressed, and find comfort and support from the sense of joining with others in the mission.

Investigating Racial Disparities in Cancer Crowdfunding: A Comprehensive Study of Medical GoFundMe Campaigns.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, there has been growing concern about prejudice in crowdfunding; however, empirical research remains limited, particularly in the context of medical crowdfunding. This study addresses the pressing issue of racial disparities in medical crowdfunding, with a specific focus on cancer crowdfunding on the GoFundMe platform. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate racial disparities in cancer crowdfunding using average donation amount, number of donations, and success of the fundraising campaign as outcomes. METHODS: Drawing from a substantial data set of 104,809 campaigns in the United States, we used DeepFace facial recognition technology to determine racial identities and used regression models to examine racial factors in crowdfunding performance. We also examined the moderating effect of the proportion of White residents on crowdfunding bias and used 2-tailed t tests to measure the influence of racial anonymity on crowdfunding success. Owing to the large sample size, we set the cutoff for significance at P<.001. RESULTS: In the regression and supplementary analyses, the racial identity of the fundraiser significantly predicted average donations (P<.001), indicating that implicit bias may play a role in donor behavior. Gender (P=.04) and campaign description length (P=.62) did not significantly predict the average donation amounts. The race of the fundraiser was not significantly associated with the number of donations (P=.42). The success rate of cancer crowdfunding campaigns, although generally low (11.77%), showed a significant association with the race of the fundraiser (P<.001). After controlling for the covariates of the fundraiser gender, fundraiser age, local White proportion, length of campaign description, and fundraising goal, the average donation amount to White individuals was 17.68% higher than for Black individuals. Moreover, campaigns that did not disclose racial information demonstrated a marginally higher average donation amount (3.92%) than those identified as persons of color. Furthermore, the racial composition of the fundraiser's county of residence was found to exert influence (P<.001); counties with a higher proportion of White residents exhibited reduced racial disparities in crowdfunding outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes to a deeper understanding of racial disparities in cancer crowdfunding. It highlights the impact of racial identity, geographic context, and the potential for implicit bias in donor behavior. As web-based platforms evolve, addressing racial inequality and promoting fairness in health care financing remain critical goals. Insights from this research suggest strategies such as maintaining racial anonymity and ensuring that campaigns provide strong evidence of deservingness. Moreover, broader societal changes are necessary to eliminate the financial distress that drives individuals to seek crowdfunding support.

The history of the British Dental Association Benevolent Fund: wartimes and between - Part 3.

By the end of the 1910s, the British Dental Association Benevolent Fund was well-established and financially sound. Subscriptions and donations continued to grow but were never quite enough for the treasurer or indeed the committee, who were unable to fulfil all requests for help. Wartime restrictions on paper use meant that publicity was entirely in the hands for the editor of the British Dental Journal, as no separate annual reports were produced. Call-ups to military service decreased the numbers of volunteers willing or able to serve on the committee but applications for assistance in these years continued to grow. The introduction of the 1921 Dentist Act raised issues of resourcing and the future of the Charity for the committee. Novel fundraising suggestions were rife. Volunteer almoners were needed to monitor the increasing number of grant recipients.

Understanding unmet medical needs through medical crowdfunding in China.

OBJECTIVES: Online medical crowdfunding has gained popularity in recent years in China. The objective of this study was to identify unmet medical needs in the public healthcare system through analysis of Chinese medical crowdfunding data. STUDY DESIGN: Text information extraction and statistical analysis based on large-scale data. METHODS: From 19 June 2011 to 15 March 2020, data from 30,704 medical crowdfunding projects were collected from Tencent GongYi, which is one of the largest Chinese medical crowdfunding platforms. Text mining methods were used to extract data on the medical conditions and locations of the applicants of medical crowdfunding. In addition, 125 medical crowdfunding projects initiated by leukaemia patients in Chongqing and Nanyang were further investigated through manual data extraction, and the factors impacting the fundraising goals were explored using a generalised linear model. RESULTS: The most common conditions using medical crowdfunding to raise funds were as follows: cancer (31.87%), chronic conditions (18.14%), accidental injury (7.80%) and blood system-related conditions (7.75%). Treatments for cancer and blood system-related conditions are expensive and have serious long-term impacts on the lives of patients. Results showed that the cities of Nanyang and Chongqing had the largest number of crowdfunding projects. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that the medical conditions that prompted individuals to apply for crowdfunding were those with long treatment cycles, complexities and expensive medical or non-medical costs. Furthermore, discrepancies in health insurance policies between different regions and residents seeking treatments outside their insurance locations were also important factors that triggered medical crowdfunding applications. Adjusting health insurance policies accordingly may improve the efficiency of utilising health insurance resources and reduce the financial burden on patients.

Ethical Guidance for Physicians and Health Care Institutions on Grateful Patient Fundraising: A Position Paper From the American College of Physicians.

Physician solicitation of charitable contributions from patients-also known among other things as grateful patient fundraising-raises significant ethical concerns. These include pressure on patients to donate and the effects of this on the patient-physician relationship, potential expectations of donor patients for treatment that is not indicated or preferential care, justice and fairness issues, disclosure and use of confidential patient information for nontreatment purposes, and conflicts of interest. The patient-physician relationship and knowledge of the patient's medical history, clinical status, personal information, and financial circumstances are some of the reasons development and administrative officials might see physicians as strong potential fundraisers. But those are among the reasons grateful patient fundraising is ethically problematic. This American College of Physicians position paper explores these issues and offers guidance.

Public welfare crowdfunding decision-making of environmental nonprofit organizations based on social responsibility.

Sustainable crowdfunding has emerged as a significant factor in the quest for alternative funding streams in recent times. The process has entailed the removal of financial obstacles and intermediaries, facilitating proximity between entrepreneurs' initiatives and fund providers, thereby initiating modifications in conventional investment and profitability criteria. The correlation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable business returns is a significant metric that may enhance funding costs. CSR initiatives and crowdfunding possess the potential for mutually beneficial outcomes in terms of fundraising. However, fundraisers encounter obstacles and competition in their efforts to attain their donation objectives. As an illustration, CSR endeavors may provide a chance to raise capital via crowdfunding. Conversely, crowdfunding has the potential to serve as a means of micro-funding various social initiatives that align with a corporation's corporate social responsibility objectives. The present research investigates the correlation between efficacious donation fundraising campaigns in the context of crowdfunding endeavors that hold the possibility of transforming into corporate social responsibility initiatives. The present study investigates the correlation between the initial amount of funds raised on the first day of a fundraising campaign and the target amount of funds sought by the fundraiser, as well as the type of activities involved. The present study utilizes data derived from crowdfunding endeavors in Southeast Asian nations to scrutinize the funds amassed through donations by juxtaposing trends, cultures, and characteristics of fundraisers employing donation-based crowdfunding. The present investigation employs data collected between the period spanning from the beginning of September 2021 to the end of September 2021 in the economies of Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. The present investigation utilizes the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach for the estimation of the variables. The findings of the hypothesis indicate that there exists a positive correlation between crowdfunding, environmental nonprofit organizations, organizational profitability, and CSR.

Biopharma innovation trends during COVID-19 and beyond: an evidence from global partnerships and fundraising activities, 2011-2022.

BACKGROUND: Co-development alliances and capital-raising activities are essential supports for biopharmaceutical innovation. During the initial outbreak of the COVID-19, the level of these business activities has increased greatly. Yet the magnitude, direction, and duration of the trend remain ambiguous. Real-time real-world data are needed to inform strategic redirections and industrial policies. METHODS: This observational study aims to characterize trends in global biopharma innovation activities throughout the global pandemic outbreak. Our extensive deal dataset is retrieved from the commercial database GlobalData (12,866 partnership deals and 32,250 fundraising deals announced between 2011 and 2022). We perform Chi-squared tests to examine the changes in qualitative deal attributes during and beyond the outbreak. Our deal-level sample is further aggregated into category-level panel data according to deal characteristics such as therapy area, molecule type, and development phase. We run a series of regressions to examine how the monthly investment amount raised in each category changed with the onset of the pandemic, controlling for the US Federal funds rate. RESULTS: The temporary surge of partnership and capital-raising activities was associated with the increase in infectious disease-related deals. Academic and government institutions played an increased role in supporting COVID-related co-development partnerships in 2020, and biopharma ventures had been securing more investments in the capital market throughout 2020 and 2021. The partnership and investment boom did not last till the later pandemic in 2022. The most significant and enduring trend was the shifting focus toward discovery-phase investments. Our regression model reveals that the discovery-phase fundraising deals did not suffer from a bounce back in the late pandemic, consistent with a persistent focus on early innovation. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the reduced level of partnership and fundraising activities during 2022, we observe a lasting change in focus toward biopharmaceutical innovation after the pandemic outbreak. Our evidence suggests how entrepreneurs and investors should allocate resources in response to the post-pandemic tight monetary environment. We also suggest the need for policy interventions in financing private/public co-development partnerships and non-COVID-related technologies, to maintain their research capacity and generate breakthroughs when faced with unforeseen diseases.

Inducing collective action intentions for healthcare reform through medical crowdfunding framing.

As a response to the shortcomings of the U.S. healthcare system, Americans are increasingly turning to crowdfunding platforms to bankroll their health-related costs. However, although medical crowdfunding has rapidly become institutionalized as part of the U.S. healthcare financing landscape, empirical evidence on how Americans perceive its role in healthcare and the impact it might have on public attitudes is scarce. To shed more light on the above, we analyze data from one correlational and one experimental study conducted over September-November 2021. Our correlational study reveals that political orientation is associated with Americans' views on medical crowdfunding. Specifically, we find that those who self-identified as conservative perceived medical crowdfunding as a valid part of the system, and more positively than a universal healthcare system. In contrast, medical crowdfunding is perceived less positively, as hindering a system of universal and affordable healthcare by those more liberally-oriented. In our experimental study, we explore how medical crowdfunding narratives can induce social attitudes conducive to change. Specifically, we test the effect of politicized narratives (vs. control) on group efficacy and subsequently on collective action intentions for healthcare reform, as a function of political orientation. Our results show that politicized narratives might induce collective action intentions through higher group efficacy, but only among those who self-identified as conservative. Liberally-oriented individuals held high collective action intentions for healthcare reform and were not affected by the manipulation. Our work is the first to establish empirically that medical crowdfunding, when employing politicized narratives, can induce collective action intentions, but this effect is moderated by political ideology.

The intent and influence of evaluation policies and strategies in the philanthropic sector.

Evaluation policies are being written across the philanthropic sector. These policies offer rules and principles that are intended to guide evaluation practice. However, it is unclear what has motivated the development of evaluation policies and what impact, if any, they have on evaluation practice. Through interviews with 10 evaluation directors at foundations that have written evaluation policies, we identify the intent of these policies and their perceived influence in the philanthropic sector. We conclude with suggestions for future research on evaluation policy.

Evaluation of Crowdsourced Fundraising to Cover Health Care Costs for Neurological Conditions in the US.

This cross-sectional study characterizes the use of and rationale for crowdsourced fundraising by patients with neurological illnesses and their family members.

Global funding for cancer research between 2016 and 2020: a content analysis of public and philanthropic investments.

BACKGROUND: Cancer is a leading cause of disease burden globally, with more than 19·3 million cases and 10 million deaths recorded in 2020. Research is crucial to understanding the determinants of cancer and the effects of interventions, and to improving outcomes. We aimed to analyse global patterns of public and philanthropic investment in cancer research. METHODS: In this content analysis, we searched the UberResearch Dimensions database and Cancer Research UK data for human cancer research funding awards from public and philanthropic funders between Jan 1, 2016, and Dec 31, 2020. Included award types were project and programme grants, fellowships, pump priming, and pilot projects. Awards focused on operational delivery of cancer care were excluded. Awards were categorised by cancer type, cross-cutting research theme, and research phase. Funding amount was compared with global burden of specific cancers, measured by disability-adjusted life-years, years lived with disability, and mortality using data from the Global Burden of Disease study. FINDINGS: We identified 66 388 awards with total investment of about US$24·5 billion in 2016-20. Investment decreased year-on-year, with the largest drop observed between 2019 and 2020. Pre-clinical research received 73·5% of the funding across the 5 years ($18 billion), phase 1-4 clinical trials received 7·4% ($1·8 billion), public health research received 9·4% ($2·3 billion), and cross-disciplinary research received 5·0% ($1·2 billion). General cancer research received the largest investment ($7·1 billion, 29·2% of the total funding). The most highly funded cancer types were breast cancer ($2·7 billion [11·2%]), haematological cancer ($2·3 billion [9·4%]), and brain cancer ($1·3 billion [5·5%]). Analysis by cross-cutting theme revealed that 41·2% of investment ($9·6 billion) went to cancer biology research, 19·6% ($4·6 billion) to drug treatment research, and 12·1% ($2·8 billion) to immuno-oncology. 1·4% of the total funding ($0·3 billion) was spent on surgery research, 2·8% ($0·7 billion) was spent on radiotherapy research, and 0·5% ($0·1 billion) was spent on global health studies. INTERPRETATION: Cancer research funding must be aligned with the global burden of cancer with more equitable funding for cancer research in low-income and middle-income countries (which account for 80% of cancer burden), both to support research relevant to these settings, and build research capacity within these countries. There is an urgent need to prioritise investment in surgery and radiotherapy research given their primacy in the treatment of many solid tumours. FUNDING: None.