{"id":31836,"date":"2022-11-10T03:50:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T03:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=31836"},"modified":"2022-11-11T04:26:24","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T04:26:24","slug":"fundraisers-who-appeal-to-donors-fond-memories-by-evoking-their-emotions-may-get-larger-gifts-new-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/fundraisers-who-appeal-to-donors-fond-memories-by-evoking-their-emotions-may-get-larger-gifts-new-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Fundraisers who appeal to donors\u2019 fond memories by evoking their emotions may get larger gifts \u2013 new\u00a0research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michael Kurtz<\/a>, Lycoming College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Research Brief<\/a> is a short take about interesting academic work.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big idea<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The emotions donors feel when they decide whether to give money to nonprofits can affect the size of their gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what my research team found<\/a> when we partnered with a small liberal arts college during its fall fund drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fundraisers used their standard phone pitch when they asked around 100 alumni to chip in. During another 100 calls, selected randomly, the fundraisers first asked the alumni to reflect on \u201ca person or event in their past that had particularly benefited them since graduating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found that people who were asked to reflect on things that have benefited them were not more likely to make a pledge. But the average pledge they made increased by about 90% to US$27 from $14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As fellow economist Steven Furnagiev, college student Rebecca Forbes and I<\/a> explained in the academic journal Theory and Decision, we found that the emotions these donors felt when making their pledge was responsible for this difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why it matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nonprofits advance many causes by engaging in activities like conserving nature, reducing poverty, protecting human rights and strengthening education. Figuring out what leads people to give more to support these groups could help these organizations raise more money and accomplish more of their goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prompting alumni to reflect on things they feel grateful for is what\u2019s called a \u201cnudge\u201d in behavioral economics<\/a>. One explanation for why the nudge we used with one group led it to pledge bigger gifts is that most people are inclined to focus more on their difficulties rather than their good fortune<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our study suggests that when people are thinking about what\u2019s gone right in their lives, they are more willing to donate more money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What other research is being done<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Other researchers<\/a> have also found<\/a> that feelings can play a role<\/a> when donors make decisions<\/a>. Those studies had similar results but were largely done in less realistic settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What still isn\u2019t known<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite this research\u2019s being conducted in a real-world situation, it is still limited in scope. We don\u2019t know, for example, whether donors might respond the same way if they weren\u2019t being asked to support their alma mater. We also can\u2019t say whether evoking different emotions, aside from gratitude, might have different effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Kurtz<\/a>, Associate Professor of Economics, Lycoming College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Kurtz, Lycoming College The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea The emotions donors feel when they decide whether to give money to nonprofits can affect the size of their gift. That\u2019s what my research team found when we partnered with a small liberal arts college during its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":31837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[277],"tags":[4206,542,687,5714,7290,3050,7727],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31836"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31838,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31836\/revisions\/31838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}