Do Thank-You Calls Increase Charitable Giving? Expert Forecasts and Field Experimental Evidencet

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Samek, Anya; Longfield, Chuck
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California San Diego; University of Cambridge
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20210068
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 103-124
• 关键词: social information; gift exchange; ECONOMICS; Donations; altruism; IMPACT

摘要

Calling to thank donors is considered a key fundraising strategy in the charitable giving industry. Yet the effectiveness of thank-you calls remains untested. We conduct field experiments with public television stations and a national nonprofit in which 500,000 new donors were randomized to receive a thank-you call or not. Fundraising professionals predicted that the calls-which followed standard practices in the industry-would increase donor retention by 80 percent. In stark contrast, we found a precisely estimated null effect of calls on donor retention.