Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/204827 
Title: 

Personalized fundraising: A field experiment on threshold matching of donations

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

Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
WZB Discussion Paper No. SP II 2019-306
Publisher: 
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), Berlin
Abstract: 
While increasing the number of small donors, standard linear matching schemes have been shown to cause considerable crowding out in charitable giving with pronounced effects on large gifts. We propose a form of threshold matching where donations above a certain, potentially personalized, threshold are topped up with a fixed amount. We show theoretically that threshold matching can induce crowd-ing in if appropriately personalized. In a field experiment, we explore how thresholds should be chosen depending on past donations. We find that the opti-mal choice of thresholds is rather bold, approximately 60-75% above past dona-tions. Additionally, we explore how thresholds should be set for new donors as a function of their personal characteristics and demonstrate the benefits of person-alization as opposed to setting general thresholds applying to all recipients of a fundraising call.
Subjects: 
charitable giving
field experiments
matching donations
JEL: 
C93
D64
D12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
The document was removed on behalf of the author(s)/ the editor(s) on: February 13, 2020


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