Erik Schneiderhan and Martin Lukk. GoFailMe: The Unfulfilled Promise of Digital Crowdfunding SchneiderhanErikLukkMartin. GoFailMe: The Unfulfilled Promise of Digital Crowdfunding. Stanford University Press, 2023. 230 pp. $25, paper.
本书基于调查数据、深度访谈和大量受益者与捐赠者数据集，揭示了捐赠众筹平台（如GoFundMe）未能兑现其承诺，反而加剧不平等并给求助者带来情感负担，呼吁寻找更公平有效的援助方式。
Before the advent of donation crowdfunding, people in need of monetary help primarily turned to family networks, their communities, nonprofit charities, or government assistance.Today, online platforms where people in need can solicit funds from an anonymous crowd are ubiquitous, surpassing the fundraising efforts of even the largest charity fundraisers.At a time when the media portrays donation crowdfunding platforms such as GoFundMe as a democratizing force, GoFailMe offers a well-researched and sobering counternarrative.As its title suggests, the book illuminates the many ways in which online donation crowdfunding platforms fail to deliver on their promises.In GoFailMe, Erik Schneiderhan and Martin Lukk compellingly argue that the success of donation-based crowdfunding tells us close to nothing about the real struggles of people in need and this funding vehicle's limited impact on them.Drawing on survey data, in-depth interviews, and a large dataset of beneficiaries and donors, the authors unveil often neglected realities of donation crowdfunding, guiding the reader through the crowdfunding journey.They begin with why people use this donation vehicle, the barriers they face when setting up a campaign, how they feel while doing so, and the outcomes of their attempts.The book shows how donation crowdfunding not only falls short in giving (fair) access to necessary funds but also imposes substantial emotional distress on those who publicly share their struggles.This book presents important work, as it not only thoroughly elucidates understudied aspects of donation crowdfunding but also urges the identification of more equitable and effective ways to help those in need.GoFailMe provides a detailed dissection of donation crowdfunding's promises and outcomes.The primary argument is a cautionary tale that profit maximization and philanthropy make poor bedfellows.Driven by profit-driven platforms (such as GoFundMe), donation crowdfunding should by no means be a replacement for solving systemic societal issues for people whom traditional systems (i.e., the state) fail to support, the authors argue.Chapter One traces the rapid rise of donation crowdfunding platforms.While promising help to those in need, these platforms actually perpetuate systemic inequalities through their opaque algorithms and operations, as well as their ''sneaky'' (p.102) but substantial transaction fees that drive the platform's profit margin.Chapter Two offers vivid stories of individuals compelled to dive into donation crowdfunding by life-altering events, such as unemployment, inability to pay for one's education, and severe illness.The authors unveil an exploitative process in which campaigners, competing with others in need of help for crowd attention, must openly broadcast their tragedies, begging for money from an anonymous digital crowd whose known biases (including homophily, geographical