Fundraising for Stigmatized Groups: A Text Message Donation Experiment

Abstract

As government welfare programming contracts and NGOs increasingly assume core aid functions, they must address a long-standing challenge—that people in need often belong to stigmatized groups. To study other-regarding behavior, we fielded an experiment through a text-to-give campaign in Greece. Donations did not increase with an appeal to the in-group (Greek child) relative to a control (child), but they were halved with reference to a stigmatized out-group (Roma child). An appeal to fundamental rights, a common advocacy strategy, did not reduce the generosity gap. Donations to all groups were lower near Roma communities and declined disproportionately for the Roma appeal. Qualitative research in 12 communities complements our experiment. We conclude that NGO fundraising strategies that narrowly emphasize either in-groups or out-groups, or fundamental rights language, may not be as effective as broader appeals, and we discuss implications for public goods provision in an era of growing nationalism.

A Critique of Martha Nussbaum’s Liberal Aesthetics

“…Behind Nussbaum’s notion of the morally right kind of character is instead an idea of human nature: of the possibility of a reader being able to identify with a character on the basis that they share with them a common humanity, despite being materially different to them in manifold ways. This is especially a problem if we think—as much empirical research suggests—that existing forms of social stratification and segregation compromise abilities to identify across social categories (Kteily and Bruneau 2017; Linos, Jakli, and Carlson 2021; Xiojing et al 2009). This was something Aristotle (1926, 1386a13) himself argued, claiming in the Rhetoric that men “pity those who resemble them in age, character, habits, position, or family”.…”

Channeling and dampening: The role of political ties in information disclosure and concealment

“…We created descriptions of philanthropic foundations that were identical except for four dimensions: domain, audit report, donor query, and General Secretary C.V. The domain, i.e., service domain of the foundation, was described as raising China's global profile in the medical domain (0) or community regeneration (1). These are consistent with two of the seven domains for foundations operating in China and reflect the declared purposes of foundations in our archival data.…”

“…Non-profit organizations (NPOs) play a crucial role in helping governments achieve their social objectives [1]. At the same time, they must navigate relationships with private-sector actors, who are an important source of donations [2].…”

Victim’s Identification and Social Categorization: First- and Second-Order Effects on Altruistic Behavior

“…Identification can also backfire, as when the victim can be blamed of being responsible of their condition (Kogut, 2011), or when they belong to a stigmatized group (Deshpande and Spears, 2016;Linos et al, 2021). In inter-group conflict situations, identifiability can enhance generosity toward a member of the adversary group and lessen it toward a member of one's own group (Ritov and Kogut, 2011).…”