comparing charitable fundraising schemes : evidence from a natural field experiment ∗
نویسنده
چکیده
We present evidence from a natural field experiment designed to shed light on the efficacy of alternative fundraising schemes. In conjunction with the Bavarian State Opera House, we mailed 25,000 regular opera attendees a letter describing a charitable fundrais-ing project organized by the opera house. Recipients were randomly assigned to one of six treatments designed to explore behavioral responses to a variety of linear and non-linear matching schemes, and their response to large lead gifts that might serve as a signal of the quality of the project. Our main results are–(i) linear matching schemes partially crowd out donations and so do not pay for fundraisers; (ii) well designed non-linear matching schemes crowd in donations; (iii) the presence of lead gifts trigger the largest increases in donations. Our research design allows us to provide external validity to aspects of giving behavior that have been documented in other settings, to provide novel evidence on other dimensions of giving behavior, and to shed light on the optimal design of fundraising schemes. * We thank the editor, Kjetil Storesletten and two anonymous referees for suggestions that have greatly improved the paper. We also thank and numerous seminar participants for useful comments. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the ESRC and ELSE. All errors remain our own.
منابع مشابه
Comparing Charitable Fundraising Schemes: Evidence from a Field Experiment and a Structural Model by
We present evidence from a natural field experiment designed to shed light on the efficacy of alternative fundraising schemes. In conjunction with the Bavarian State Opera House, we mailed 25,000 regular opera attendees a letter describing a charitable fundraising project organized by the opera house. Recipients were randomly assigned to six treatments designed to explore behavioral responses t...
متن کاملComparing Charitable Fundraising Schemes: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment and a Structural Model
We present evidence from a natural field experiment and structural model designed to shed light on the efficacy of alternative fundraising schemes. In conjunction with the Bavarian State Opera, we mailed 25,000 opera attendees a letter describing a charitable fundraising project organized by the opera house. Recipients were randomly assigned to six treatments designed to explore behavioral resp...
متن کاملcomparing charitable fundraising schemes : evidence from a natural field experiment and a structural model ¤
متن کامل
Comparing Charitable Fundraising Schemes: Evidence from a Field Experiment and a Structural Model
We present evidence from a natural field experiment and structural model designed to shed light on the efficacy of alternative fundraising schemes. In conjunction with the Bavarian State Opera, we mailed 25,000 opera attendees a letter describing a charitable fundraising project organized by the opera house. Recipients were randomly assigned to six treatments designed to explore behavioral resp...
متن کاملMatched Fundraising: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment
Matched Fundraising: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment We present evidence from a natural field experiment designed to shed light on the efficacy of fundraising schemes in which donations are matched by a lead donor. In conjunction with the Bavarian State Opera House, we mailed 14,000 regular opera attendees a letter describing a charitable fundraising project organized by the opera hous...
متن کامل