Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/130712 
Title: 

Online fundraising, self-deception, and the long-term impact of ask avoidance

The document was removed on behalf of the author(s)/ the editor(s).

Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
WZB Discussion Paper No. SP II 2016-306
Publisher: 
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), Berlin
Abstract: 
We study an online fundraising campaign run on an opera ticket booking plat-form. After establishing a baseline, a first change doubled the donation grid. A second change altered the navigation of the website rendering the act of declining to donate more salient. The contribution of our paper is fourfold. First, we add to the literature on defaults by showing how donation grids can have dramatic im-pacts on giving. Second, we demonstrate that small, apparently superficial chang-es in the design of a campaign can have unexpectedly large consequences (offset-ting the effects of changes in the choice architecture). Third, we provide the first field evidence for the role of self-image in charitable giving. Finally, we provide stark evidence on adverse long-run effects of fundraising campaigns for ticket selling entities. "Avoiding the ask," non-frequent customers buy fewer tickets in the following opera season. Ticket sales per person fall by €16-32, while average charitable income from the same group during the campaign is just €0.26.
Subjects: 
online fundraising
quasi-experiment
self-image
JEL: 
D64
D03
D12
C93
L31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
The document was removed on behalf of the author(s)/ the editor(s) on: March 26, 2018


Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.