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Donation-based crowdfunding platforms are increasingly important for those in need, especially in times of crisis. When fundraisers face financial difficulties in addition to the original challenges underpinning their appeal, we can expect to find highly emotional textual descriptions in charitable crowdfunding campaigns. On top of any existing challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic has induced feelings of helplessness and uncertainty. Hence, we pose the question of whether, and to what extent, this pandemic has influenced the topics of donation campaigns and the emotionality expressed in them. Conducting an exploratory analysis on a dataset from GoFundMe, we combine a quantitative approach of dictionary-based sentiment analysis with exploratory topic modeling. Key findings indicate that negative emotions (ie, negatively associated words) in the campaign descriptions have increased sharply at the onset of the pandemic, and that the topics of pandemic-related campaigns have spread from health to other aspects of life, such as personal difficulties.