Publicize Actual and Potential Donors

Most donors want to help.

But all donors want to be seen helping (Bekkers & Wiepking, 2011).

How to Apply

• Enshrine the Names of Donors. Donors want other people to see their name. During telethons, viewers are more likely to donate during moments when donor names are being shown (Silverman et al., 1984).

• Illuminate Prospective Donors. A crowdfunding website could show people who visited the campaign. That way, their lack of donation will be visible.

• Ask People Whether to Publicize Their Donation. It makes them consider their “leadership” qualities, which elicits a larger donation: "giving people the option to report their contributions results in more giving than required reporting…empowering people with the choice to announce their contributions — even though it is a “false” choice that no one would reject — might actually focus them more on being leaders and example setters" (Andreoni & Petrie, 2004, p. 1620-1621)

• Andreoni, J., & Petrie, R. (2004). Public goods experiments without confidentiality: a glimpse into fund-raising. Journal of public Economics, 88(7-8), 1605-1623.
• Bekkers, R., & Wiepking, P. (2011). A literature review of empirical studies of philanthropy: Eight mechanisms that drive charitable giving. Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 40(5), 924-973.
• Silverman, W. K., Robertson, S. J., Middlebrook, J. L., & Drabman, R. S. (1984). An investigation of pledging behavior to a national charitable telethon. Behavior Therapy, 15(3), 304-311.