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Ask and ye shall receive: The effect of the appeals scale on consumers' donation behavior

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  • Desmet, Pierre
  • Feinberg, Fred M.

Abstract

Managers in the fundraising sector face the constant challenge of solliciting donations from a population who may or may not have donated before. Rather than merely asking respondents what they wish to donate, it is standard practice to present a set of suggested amounts -the appeals scale- in making donation requests. With a large scale field trial, coupled with a donation database from a French charity, we find with a segment-level Bayesian model, a very significant influence of the appeals scale and of 'round' scale values, such as those appearing on common bank notes, on distribution of donations.
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Suggested Citation

  • Desmet, Pierre & Feinberg, Fred M., 2003. "Ask and ye shall receive: The effect of the appeals scale on consumers' donation behavior," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 349-376, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:24:y:2003:i:3:p:349-376
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    Cited by:

    1. Steffen Altmann & Armin Falk & Paul Heidhues & Rajshri Jayaraman & Marrit Teirlinck, 2019. "Defaults and Donations: Evidence from a Field Experiment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(5), pages 808-826, December.
    2. Thomas, Suman Ann & Feng, Shanfei & Krishnan, Trichy V., 2015. "To retain? To upgrade? The effects of direct mail on regular donation behavior," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 48-63.
    3. Patty Jansen & Tobias Gössling & Toon Bullens, 2011. "Towards Shared Social Responsibility: A Study of Consumers’ Willingness to Donate Micro-Insurances when Taking Out Their Own Insurance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 100(1), pages 175-190, April.
    4. Verhaert, Griet Alice & Van den Poel, Dirk, 2011. "Improving Campaign Success Rate by Tailoring Donation Requests along the Donor Lifecycle," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 51-63.
    5. Adena, Maja & Huck, Steffen, 2022. "Personalized fundraising: A field experiment on threshold matching of donations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 1-20.
    6. Adena, Maja & Huck, Steffen & Rasul, Imran, 2014. "Charitable Giving and Nonbinding Contribution-Level Suggestions - Evidence from a Field Experiment," Review of Behavioral Economics, now publishers, vol. 1(3), pages 275-293, May.
    7. Kevin F. McCardle & Kumar Rajaram & Christopher S. Tang, 2009. "A Decision Analysis Tool for Evaluating Fundraising Tiers," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 6(1), pages 4-13, March.
    8. Schniter, Eric & Sheremeta, Roman & Shields, Timothy, 2015. "The Problem with All-or-nothing Trust Games: What Others Choose Not to Do Matters In Trust-based Exchange," MPRA Paper 68561, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. repec:cup:judgdm:v:8:y:2013:i:6:p:678-690 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Hannes Koppel & Günther G. Schulze, 2009. "On the Channels of Pro-Social Behavior Evidence from a natural field experiment," Jena Economics Research Papers 2009-102, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    11. Christoph Feldhaus & Tassilo Sobotta & Peter Werner, 2019. "Norm Uncertainty and Voluntary Payments in the Field," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(4), pages 1855-1866, April.
    12. Ilya O. Ryzhov & Bin Han & Jelena Bradić, 2016. "Cultivating Disaster Donors Using Data Analytics," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(3), pages 849-866, March.
    13. Indranil Goswami & Oleg Urminsky, 2016. "When should the ask be a nudge? The Effect of Default Amounts on Charitable Donations," Natural Field Experiments 00659, The Field Experiments Website.
    14. Chan, Nathan W. & Wolk, Leonard, 2020. "Cost-effective giving with multiple public goods," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 130-145.
    15. Rachel Croson & Americus Reed & Jen Shang, 2007. "We give more: The impact of identity and the mere information effect on donation behavior," Natural Field Experiments 00324, The Field Experiments Website.
    16. Rachel Croson & Jen Shang, 2006. "Field experiments in charitable contribution: The impact of social influence on the voluntary provision of public goods," Natural Field Experiments 00323, The Field Experiments Website.
    17. Dorina Hysenbelli & Enrico Rubaltelli & Rino Rumiati, 2013. "Others' opinions count, but not all of them: anchoring to ingroup versus outgroup members' behavior in charitable giving," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 8(6), pages 678-690, November.
    18. Briers, B.M.E. & Pandelaere, M. & Warlop, L., 2007. "Adding exchange to charity : A reference price explanation," Other publications TiSEM 7b0069ad-8251-4e7d-82ba-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    19. Park, Sohyeon & Yoon, Song Oh, 2022. "The effects of solicitation and target amounts on consumers’ charitable giving decisions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 279-289.
    20. Briers, Barbara & Pandelaere, Mario & Warlop, Luk, 2007. "Adding exchange to charity: A reference price explanation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 15-30, January.
    21. De Bruyn, Arnaud & Prokopec, Sonja, 2017. "Assimilation-contrast theory in action: Operationalization and managerial impact in a fundraising context," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 367-381.

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