Small business owner celebrating crowdfunding success with AI assistance.

AI to the Rescue: Unlocking Crowdfunding Success for Small Businesses

Reese Marlowe in Business & Economy December 2025 • 4 min read.

"How artificial intelligence is leveling the playing field for small businesses seeking funding online."

Crowdfunding has become a lifeline for small businesses, but the stark reality is that over 40% of campaigns fail, especially those originating from disadvantaged socioeconomic areas. This article explores how advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) are providing a solution, offering data-driven strategies to improve fundraising outcomes.

Traditional approaches to boosting crowdfunding success, such as matching donations or offering thank-you gifts, often face financial and logistical limitations. However, businesses have more control over their campaign narratives, making linguistic enhancements a practical avenue for improvement. But knowing which linguistic changes to make can be challenging.

Enter AI. Recent research demonstrates how large language models (LLMs) can analyze and optimize campaign descriptions, identifying crucial factors that influence success. This article dives into these findings, revealing how AI can help small businesses craft more compelling narratives and increase their chances of reaching their funding goals.

AI-Powered Strategies for Crowdfunding Success

Small business owner celebrating crowdfunding success with AI assistance.

A recent study utilized AI technology to analyze thousands of crowdfunding campaigns, pinpointing key elements that drive success. The results showed that the best-performing machine learning model could accurately predict fundraising outcomes with 81% accuracy, primarily based on the campaign's textual description. This highlights the immense power of effective storytelling.

But the study didn't stop there. Researchers went on to demonstrate how AI could be used to improve campaign narratives. By augmenting just three aspects of the text using a large language model, campaigns became more preferable to 83% of human evaluators, and their likelihood of securing financial support increased by an average of 11.9%.

Expressing Gratitude: Clearly thanking potential donors for their support.
Explaining Urgency: Articulating the immediate need for funding.
Acknowledging Matching Grants: Highlighting the availability of matching funds, such as those offered by GoFundMe's Small Business Relief Initiative.

These findings offer a clear roadmap for small businesses looking to improve their crowdfunding performance. Even without extensive knowledge of AI or natural language processing, businesses can leverage these insights to revise their campaign introductions and significantly increase their chances of success. The AI acts as a co-pilot, guiding them in strategizing their campaign.

Leveling the Playing Field

The integration of AI into crowdfunding offers a promising path towards more equitable access to funding for small businesses. By providing actionable strategies and insights, AI can empower businesses from all backgrounds to craft compelling narratives and achieve their fundraising goals. While the research focused on a specific platform and time period, the findings offer a valuable starting point for exploring the potential of AI in democratizing access to capital.

About this Article -

This article was crafted using a human-AI hybrid and collaborative approach. AI assisted our team with initial drafting, research insights, identifying key questions, and image generation. Our human editors guided topic selection, defined the angle, structured the content, ensured factual accuracy and relevance, refined the tone, and conducted thorough editing to deliver helpful, high-quality information.See our About page for more information.

This article is based on research published under:

DOI-LINK: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2407.0948,

Title: Using Artificial Intelligence To Unlock Crowdfunding Success For Small Businesses

Subject: econ.gn cs.ai cs.cl q-fin.ec

Authors: Teng Ye, Jingnan Zheng, Junhui Jin, Jingyi Qiu, Wei Ai, Qiaozhu Mei

Published: 24-04-2024

Everything You Need To Know

How can AI help small businesses improve their chances of success with crowdfunding?

AI, particularly large language models, offers a data-driven approach to improving crowdfunding campaign outcomes for small businesses. By analyzing campaign descriptions, AI can pinpoint key elements that influence success. It can also optimize the campaign narratives, helping businesses craft more compelling stories and increase their likelihood of reaching their funding goals. Through linguistic enhancements guided by AI, businesses can significantly improve their campaign performance and secure financial support.

What specific linguistic enhancements, according to the research, significantly impact crowdfunding campaign success when using AI?

The research identified three key linguistic enhancements that, when implemented using a large language model, can significantly boost a campaign's appeal. These include expressing gratitude to potential donors, explaining the urgency of the funding need, and acknowledging any matching grants available, such as those from GoFundMe's Small Business Relief Initiative. Incorporating these elements allows campaigns to become more preferable to human evaluators and increases the chances of securing financial support.

What is the potential impact of AI on leveling the playing field for small businesses in crowdfunding?

AI has the potential to democratize access to funding for small businesses by offering actionable strategies and insights. By providing data-driven approaches to crafting compelling narratives, AI empowers businesses from all backgrounds to achieve their fundraising goals. This can be particularly beneficial for businesses originating from disadvantaged socioeconomic areas, helping them overcome the limitations of traditional fundraising methods and increasing their access to capital.

What role does the campaign description play in determining crowdfunding success, and how does AI leverage this?

The campaign's textual description is a critical factor in determining crowdfunding success. AI technology can analyze these descriptions to identify key elements that drive success. The study highlighted that the best-performing machine learning model could accurately predict fundraising outcomes with 81% accuracy based primarily on the campaign's textual description. AI then leverages this information to enhance the narrative by suggesting and implementing linguistic improvements, such as expressing gratitude, explaining urgency, and acknowledging matching grants, making the campaign more appealing to potential donors.

How can a small business, without extensive AI knowledge, use the findings to boost their crowdfunding campaign?

Even without deep knowledge of AI or natural language processing, small businesses can utilize the research findings to improve their crowdfunding performance. They can revise their campaign introductions by incorporating the key linguistic enhancements identified by the study. These enhancements include expressing gratitude to donors, clearly explaining the urgency of the funding need, and highlighting the availability of matching grants. By focusing on these aspects, businesses can effectively leverage the insights and significantly increase their chances of reaching their fundraising goals, using AI as a co-pilot to guide their strategy.