Date of Award
Fall 2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Communication
First Advisor
Feldner, Sarah B.
Second Advisor
Gilkerson, Nathan
Third Advisor
Berg, Kati T.
Abstract
Crowdfunding has revolutionized non-profit charity fundraising strategies. The development of web-based, crowdfunding platforms has increased direct communication and transparency between non-profit charities and potential donors. The non-profit fundraising marketplace is highly competitive; therefore, organizations must demonstrate their legitimacy in order to raise and maximize fundraising dollars. In order to determine how organizations build legitimacy on crowdfunding platforms, a rhetorical analysis was conducted on 18 donor request profiles from Globalgiving.com, the largest web-based crowdfunding platform for non-profit charities. Non-profit charities soliciting donors through crowdfunding platforms focus their rhetorical strategy on building three legitimacy claims: cause, organization and platform.