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Crowdfunding Surgical Missions for Burn and Extremity Reconstruction: What Drives Campaign Success?
Margaret West, BA, Jason Pham, MD, Amir Latifian, BS, Renee Brown, MS; Yifan Guo, MD
Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA
Purpose: Mission trips for cleft and craniofacial surgery are well established and supported by prominent nonprofit organizations. In contrast, soft tissue reconstruction for the trunk, extremities, and burns, often lacks institutional support. Acquired and congenital extremity deformities, along with burn injuries, remain a major burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where access to reconstructive care is limited by infrastructure and funding. As a result, surgical teams frequently turn to crowdfunding platforms such as GoFundMe (GFM) to support mission work. This study aimed to identify campaign variables associated with crowdfunding success for burn and extremity reconstruction missions, an understudied but growing source of global surgery funding.
Methods: GFM campaigns posted between January 2014 and February 2025 were identified using keywords related to reconstructive, hand, limb, and burn surgery. Campaigns were included if they aimed to fund mission trips involving extremity reconstruction. Variables collected included visuals, requested amount, author identity, tax status, and destination. Due to variability in requested amounts and the presence of campaigns without stated goals, success was defined as raising ?50% of the median requested goal. Univariate logistic regression and chi-squared tests were used to assess associations between campaign characteristics and success.
Results: Fifty-five crowdfunding campaigns were identified, of which 41 (74.5%) met the success threshold. Campaigns were grouped into four tiers by amount requested: <$2,000 (N=7), $2,000-$4,999 (N=26), $5,000-$9,999 (N=9), and >$10,000 (N=11). Two campaigns were excluded from tier-based analysis due to missing requested amounts. Campaigns requesting <$2,000 were the only group to exceed their goals on average, raising 114%. The $2,000-$4,999 and $5,000-$9,999 tiers raised 67% and 56%, respectively. Campaigns requesting >$10,000 raised the most on average ($8,924) but reached only 32% of their goals. Variability increased with higher requested amounts (Figure 1).
Several campaign characteristics were associated with decreased odds of success, including tax-deductible language (p=0.050), healthcare professional authorship (p=0.036), and organizational affiliation (p=0.019). Posting a video trended toward reduced success (p=0.055) (Table 1). While successful campaigns had more donations on average (Figure 2), donation count was not a statistically significant predictor. Outcomes also varied by region (Figure 3) and health professional type (Figure 4).
Conclusion: Campaigns with modest goals and a personal tone were more likely to succeed and showed greater consistency. Higher-ask campaigns underperformed and had more variable outcomes. Donors appeared more responsive to campaigns that felt achievable. As crowdfunding expands in global surgery, aligning tone and targets may improve funding outcomes.
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