Payment versus charitable donations to attract agricultural and natural resource survey participation

This analysis provides two case studies comparing direct payment versus charitable donations on respondents' behalf as survey participation incentives. The first examines agricultural producers' willingness to participate in several hypothetical surveys. Donation charity significantly increases relative payment. second study forest landowners' an actual, one-time survey. Neither nor donation incentives improve among mail respondents and are less effective online respondents. If they do not decrease participation, then may be preferred, requiring effort process a smaller number of transactions.