Economists Intrigued by Research Into Philanthropy

Do you often feel as though you are a blindfolded dart game player when you put together fundraising campaigns? Help may be on the way.

According to an article in today's NY Times, "What Makes People Give?", economists are starting to be intrigued by philanthropy and whether donor behavior can be understood by rational explanations or behavioral ones.

Looking at donors with an economic lens is turning up some surprises. The article focuses on John List, an economist at the University of Chicago, who is getting out of the lab with its controlled experiments and into the field where he tests theories in the real world.

The article provides some tantalizing hints at what such research may tell fundraisers such as:

• When fundraising appeals note that there will be a matching gift, people give more. But, when different levels of matching were tested, researchers found that smaller or larger matches made little difference.
• When men were solicited for funds by attractive women, they tended to give more. However, in follow up appeals by phone or mail to those donors, they gave neither more nor less than donors solicited by ordinary-looking people.
• When fundraisers mentioned that "seed" money had been raised for a campaign's goal, they found that donations got bigger as the amount of seed money increased.

Will empirical research eventually take us out of the world of hunches and guesses when we devise our fundraising campaigns? Let's hope so. In any case, bookmark the Times article. It is a terrific history of philanthropic research and overview of what may be yet to come.

• What Makes People Give?