Is a “want” superior to a “need” when requesting financial help? Shedding light on this topic, HKUST’s Jaideep Sengupta and colleagues offer insights into the persuasive power of language in crowdfunding appeals. Their study has important practical implications for fundraisers, marketers, and policymakers alike.

Although the terms “want” and “need” are both frequently used when making requests, they can elicit very different interpretations—and responses. “This premise lies at the heart of a theoretical framework developed and tested in this research,” say the authors. Their aim was to determine when and why framing a request for donations as a “want,” rather than a “need,” may elicit better responses. They theorized that a “want” frame signals less dependency on others, while a “need” frame sends the opposite signal.

The researchers tested their novel framework in the context of crowdfunding, a fundraising medium highly relevant to today’s society, given the prevalence of digital media. “While having their projects successfully funded is crucial to fundraisers,” the authors note, “the success rate remains low.” Identifying factors that influence crowdfunders’ contribution intention is thus of great value.

The authors studied both reward-based crowdfunding, in which donors receive a reward if the project is successful, and donation-based crowdfunding, in which donations are made for purely altruistic reasons. Their findings shed light on how “a seemingly subtle but important aspect of the crowdfunding appeal can influence funding contributions.” They found that fundraisers should “word their requests carefully, with a ‘need’ frame (‘want’ frame) being more effective for donation (reward) appeals.” Surprisingly, fundraisers currently seem to lack an intuitive awareness of this difference in framing.

“These implications appear equally relevant in traditional offline fundraising scenarios,” the researchers conclude. They note that some crowdfunding variables might be influential in goal management scenarios, suggesting that “the further the goal is at present, the more dependent the fundraiser will be perceived as being.” In this context, a “need” frame may be more effective than a “want” frame.