The many obstacles to effective giving

Abstract

When people donate, they rarely give to the charities that do the most good per dollar. Why is this? One possibility is that they do not know how to give effectively. Another possibility is that they are not motivated to do so. Across six tasks (Studies 1a, 1b), we found support for both explanations. Among lay donors, we observed multiple misconceptions—regarding disaster relief, overhead costs, donation splitting, and the relative effectiveness of local and foreign charities—that reduced the effectiveness of their giving. Similarly, we found that they were unfamiliar with the most effective charities (Studies 2a, 2b). Debunking these misconceptions and informing people about effectiveness boosted effective donations; however, a portion of lay donors continued to give ineffectively to satisfy their personal preferences. By contrast, a sample of self-identified effective altruists gave effectively across all tasks. They exhibited none of the misconceptions that we observed among lay donors and overwhelmingly favored the most effective option in their choice set (Study 3). Taken together, our studies imply that donors need to be both informed and motivated to give effectively on a consistent basis.

When tainted money should fund public goods: fundraising professional and public moral preferences

“…Certainly, our findings challenge the notion of consequentialist considerations in explaining moral decision-making in this context and are more consistent with “social intuitionist” models ( 59 ). Further, a common finding in charitable giving specifically is that the moral decisions of laypeople tend to be driven by moral emotions ( 59 ) rather than by utilitarian considerations ( 60 ). Consistent with such findings, we found evidence of anger and disgust being associated with decisions to reject donations from morally tainted individuals—especially criminals.…”

Structures of Inequity: Teaching Privilege and Oppression with a Tower-Building Activity

“…It is during these phases that individuals might see, and sometimes acknowledge, the inequities between resources. In the first phase, groups must decide an item to give to another team and can be a good model of donated goods and effective giving (Caviola et al, 2020). In the second trade phase, groups must decide an item to take from another team.…”

Online social network fundraising: Threats and potentialities

“…People are not entirely rational decision makers, which is stating a truism. People are not objective optimizers that direct their donations to the charity which will maximize their use (Caviola et al, 2020). Donation decisions are influenced by the limited information people have, their personalities, values, emotions, life experiences, and other factors.…”