Place-based crowdfunding requests: Examining housing-health needs and transnational educational relocations

The practice of online crowdfunding has grown steadily over the past decade, allowing users to ask for financial donations to fulfill their wants and/or needs. Researchers continue to explore the utility of online crowdfunding and the stories divulged in campaign narratives. In this thesis, I present two qualitative analyses that deepen our understanding of the ways in which people are engaging in crowdfunding for place-based needs. In the first analysis I use crowdfunding campaign narratives to develop a classification scheme of the intersections of health and housing needs among Canadian crowdfunders. The second analysis presents a thematic analysis that explores the justifications used to appeal to potential donors written by American students accepted into Caribbean offshore medical schools to assist with covering tuition and transnational relocation costs. Both analyses contribute toward the emergent literature on the practice of crowdfunding and its value in understanding place-based experiences and needs.