Merge Beneficiaries Into a Unit

Donations can feel diluted.

Donating $1.00 to help “millions of people" implies that each person will receive $0.000001. Which can't help anybody.

Instead, group beneficiaries into a unit. It’s similar to the denomination effect in which one $20 bill feels more important than twenty $1 bills (Raghubir & Srivastava, 2009).

How to Apply

• Merge Isolated Areas Into the Broader Region. Save the Children emphasizes the country of Sudan rather than the individual areas.

• Show Beneficiaries From the Same Family. Participants were more likely to donate money to six children in Africa when they were told these children belonged to the same family (Smith et al., 2013).

• Raghubir, P., & Srivastava, J. (2009). The denomination effect. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(4), 701-713.
• Smith, R. W., Faro, D., & Burson, K. A. (2013). More for the many: The influence of entitativity on charitable giving. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(5), 961-976.