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...

Research has shown that extrinsic incentives can crowd out intrinsic motivation in many contexts. Despite this, many nonprofits offer conditional thank-you gifts, such as mugs or tote bags, in exchange for donations. In collaboration with a nonprofit, this study implements a direct mail field experiment and demonstrates that thank-you gifts reduced donation rates in a fundraising campaign. Atte...

in this article, the low back vowel /a/ in word-final positions in eghlidian dialect, one of persian dialects, is studied. this vowel is represented phonetically as [a], [o] and [@] in different phonetic environments. therefore many words were collected via interviewing ten native speakers so that these different alternant forms can be accounted for appropriately. since one of the authors of th...

the current study aims to investigate the effectiveness of consciousness training on reducing anxiety and depression of first and second female graders in high school. it used a quasi-experimental research method. moreover, it utilized cluster randomized sampling; hence, the high schools were randomly selected from the city of ilam. beck and zong anxiety questionnaires were administered among 1...

Prior research has affirmed the importance of direct marketing in various nonprofit industries, yet little guidance has been offered as to selection of those direct marketing methods that have significant effects on actual performance. This research investigates the effects of direct marketing on multiple measures of performance in the nonprofit arts industry. The results suggest that direct ma...

Charities frequently rely on professional solicitors whose commissions exceed half of total donations. To understand this practice, we propose a principal-agent model in which the charity optimally offers a higher commission to a more “efficient” solicitor, raising the price of giving significantly. Outsourcing is, therefore, profitable for the charity only if giving is very price-inelastic. Th...

The organisation-public relationship paradigm has frequently referenced Kelly’s (2001) stewardship strategies as possible methods for strengthening relationships with stakeholders; however, there have been no attempts to measure stewardship. A mailed survey of individual donors (n = 1,706) and fundraising team members (n = 124) at three non-profit hospitals asked participants to evaluate their ...

BACKGROUND There is preliminary evidence that mobile health (mHealth) apps are feasible, attractive, and an effective platform for the creation of self-management tools for persons living with HIV (PLWH). As a foundation for the current study, we conducted formative research using focus groups, participatory design sessions, and usability evaluation methods to inform the development of a health...

For those who still question the value of new media in public health campaigns, the election of Barack Obama as the 44 president of the United States can be instructive. Obama’s campaign strategy has been heralded for its impressive ability to reach, engage, and inspire supporters. The high level of public involvement was evident in the record numbers of people who volunteered, donated money, a...