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Do charities get more when they ask more often? Evidence from a unique field experiment

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  • Donkers, Bas
  • van Diepen, Merel
  • Franses, Philip Hans

Abstract

Charitable organizations send out large volumes of direct mailings, soliciting for money in support of many good causes. Without any request, donations are rarely made, and it is well known that each request for money by a charity likely generates at least some revenues. Whether a single request from a charity increases the total amount donated by an individual is however unknown. Indeed, a response to one request can hurt responses to others. The net effect is therefore not easily observable, certainly not when multiple charities address the same individuals.

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  • Donkers, Bas & van Diepen, Merel & Franses, Philip Hans, 2017. "Do charities get more when they ask more often? Evidence from a unique field experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 58-65.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:66:y:2017:i:c:p:58-65
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2016.05.006
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    2. Kimberley Scharf & Sarah Smith & Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm, 2022. "Lift and Shift: The Effect of Fundraising Interventions in Charity Space and Time," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 296-321, August.
    3. Gani Aldashev & Marco Marini & Thierry Verdier, 2017. "Samaritan Bundles: Inefficient Clustering in NGO Projects," Working Papers 6/17, Sapienza University of Rome, DISS.
    4. Gallier, Carlo & Goeschl, Timo & Kesternich, Martin & Lohse, Johannes & Reif, Christiane & Römer, Daniel, 2023. "Inter-charity competition under spatial differentiation: Sorting, crowding, and spillovers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 457-468.
    5. Damgaard, Mette Trier, 2021. "A decade of nudging: What have we learned?," Nationaløkonomisk tidsskrift, Nationaløkonomisk Forening, vol. 2021(1), pages 1-21.
    6. Mayo, Jennifer, 2021. "How do big gifts affect rival charities and their donors?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 575-597.
    7. Avichai Snir & Ronen Bar-El & Limor Hatsor, 2023. "An experiment on Donations, Personal Stories, and Bad Luck," Working Papers 2023-01, Bar-Ilan University, Department of Economics.
    8. Carrieri, V.; & Principe, F.;, 2018. "WHO and for how long? An empirical analysis of the consumers’ response to red meat warning," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 18/08, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    9. Adena, Maja & Hager, Anselm, 2020. "Does online fundraising increase charitable giving? A nation-wide field experiment on Facebook," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economics of Change SP II 2020-302, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    10. Jan Schmitz, 2021. "Is Charitable Giving a Zero-Sum Game? The Effect of Competition Between Charities on Giving Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(10), pages 6333-6349, October.
    11. Mette T. Damgaard, 2020. "A decade of nudging: What have we learned?," Economics Working Papers 2020-07, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fundraising; Competition; Direct mailing; Field experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C44 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Operations Research; Statistical Decision Theory
    • M - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics
    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing

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