Gift or Donation? Increase the Effectiveness of Charitable Solicitation Through Framing Charitable Giving as a Gift

Abstract

The question of how to improve the effectiveness of charitable solicitation has long been a subject of investigation for charity organizations. Through six studies, including four incentive-compatible studies and a field study, the present research demonstrates an easy, actionable, and widely applicable semantic-framing strategy that can be utilized to promote charitable giving. Semantically framing charitable giving as gift (rather than donation) increases not only donors’ intention to contribute but also their actual amount of contribution (Studies 1–3). Both mediation (Study 4) and moderation (Study 5) approaches provide convergent evidence that the effect of framing charitable giving as gift rather than donation on contribution is driven by donors’ perceived social distance from beneficiaries. The authors further find that this framing effect is weakened when soliciting contributions from donors who see social distance as desirable (e.g., those with a high need for status; Study 6). The current work contributes to the literatures on charitable giving, social exchange, and semantic framing, and provides strong managerial implications for charity organizations.

Don't put me on the spot: The role of perceived intrusiveness in public donation solicitations

“…Across all three studies, we used incentive‐compatible experimental designs by giving participants money that they could either donate or keep for themselves—an established proxy for assessing actual donation behavior (e.g., Jang & Irwin, 2021; Klucarova & He, 2022; Wang et al, 2022). We also mimicked public donation solicitations through the physical presence of others (Study 1) and through a video illustrating the checkout charity scenario (Studies 2 and 3).…”

“…Seventy‐three undergraduate students from a U.S. university participated in a controlled lab experiment that used an incentive‐compatible design as an established proxy for predicting donation behavior (e.g., Bruine de Bruin & Ulqinaku, 2021; Exley, 2020; Jang & Irwin, 2021; Klucarova & He, 2022; Wang et al, 2022). A modified dictator game (Berg et al, 1995) was conducted, where the participants were given real money and tasked with deciding whether or not to donate the money to an assigned charity.…”

“…One hundred twenty MTurk respondents ( M age = 42.15 years; 50% female) participated in Study 2 in exchange for modest monetary compensation. Study 2 was a consequential choice study involving an incentive‐compatible design similar to that of Study 1 and established in prior work (e.g., Bruine de Bruin & Ulqinaku, 2021; Wang et al, 2022). The scenario had participants imagine being in line at a register at a store, with the cashier and several other customers looking at them, when an advertisement for a children's charity appeared on their checkout screen.…”

Donor inspiration in nonprofit management: Conceptualization and measurement in a peer‐to‐peer context

“…This study is strongly related to the area of solicitation, referring to the mere act of being asked for a donation. Distinct ways of soliciting donors exist, for example, sending a fundraising letter or realizing a marketing campaign (Wang et al, 2023). However, a more indirect facet of solicitation, namely being inspired by peer fundraisers to donate, has rarely been studied.…”