No Substitute for the Real Thing: The Importance of In-Context Field Experiments in Fundraising

102 Pages Posted: 14 Sep 2019

See all articles by Indranil Goswami

Indranil Goswami

State University of New York (SUNY) - Department of Marketing

Oleg Urminsky

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business

Date Written: September 1, 2018

Abstract

We present a complete empirical case study of fundraising campaign decisions that demonstrates the importance of in-context field experiments. We first design novel matching-based fundraising appeals. We derive theory-based predictions from the standard impure altruism model and solicit expert opinion about the potential performance of our interventions. Both theory-based prediction and descriptive advice suggest improved fundraising performance from a framing intervention that credited donors for the matched funds (compared to a typical match framing). However, results from a natural field experiment with prior donors of a non-profit showed significantly poorer performance of this framing compared to a regularly framed matching intervention. This surprising finding was confirmed in a second natural field experiment, to establish the ground truth. Theoretically, our results highlight the limitations of both impure altruism models and of expert opinion in predicting complex “warm glow” motivation. More practically, our results question the availability of useful guidance, and suggest the indispensability of field testing for interventions in fundraising.

Keywords: Fundraising, Matching, Altruism, Warm Glow, Motivation, Field Experiment

Suggested Citation

Goswami, Indranil and Urminsky, Oleg, No Substitute for the Real Thing: The Importance of In-Context Field Experiments in Fundraising (September 1, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3448168 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3448168

Indranil Goswami

State University of New York (SUNY) - Department of Marketing ( email )

Buffalo, NY
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://mgt.buffalo.edu/faculty/academic-departments/marketing/faculty/indranil-goswami.html

Oleg Urminsky (Contact Author)

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business ( email )

5807 S. Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
57
Abstract Views
527
Rank
659,560
PlumX Metrics