We examine the factors impacting crowdfunding success in a donation-based educational crowdfunding context. In particular, we focus on the effects of expressed impoliteness in the crowdfunding project description on fundraising success and the moderating role of a contextual factor, socioeconomic status, on this effect. Using a proprietary dataset from a leading educational crowdfunding platform, we empirically test our research model using conditional logistic regression. The results show a negative impact of the expressed impoliteness on the likelihood of fundraising success. Additionally, the school's socioeconomic status positively relates to fundraising success and moderates the relationship between impoliteness and fundraising success. This study contributes to the literature on politeness in the educational crowdfunding context and provides practical implications for stakeholders on these platforms.