Describe the Tangible Outcome of Donations

Help donors see the impact of their donation.

Researchers compared two charities:

• UNICEF - Funds projects for children’s health
• SPN - Buys bed nets to stop the spread of malaria

Donors felt happier with SPN because of the tangible outcome (Aknin et al., 2013).

Donations feel most gratifying when they alleviate a negative impact.

For example, researchers categorized the valence of 5,000 donation appeals from a television station:

• Positive: “Tried and true television.”
• Negative: “Government funding has been cut $20 million”

They also categorized who would receive the benefit:

• Self: “Enjoy the best in commercial-free films”
• Other: "Support our educational children’s shows"

Only one combination was effective: Negative appeals that affected other people (Fisher et al., 2008).

In fact, appealing to viewers backfired:

When the fund-raising appeals focused on the personal or selfish benefits associated with contributing to the station, the donation became a payment in exchange for commercial-free entertainment rather than an act of giving. This type of donation does not have the same potential to enhance self-esteem (Fisher et al., 2008)

How to Apply

• Let Donors Choose the Purpose of Their Donation. Save the Children offers tangible outcomes across donation tiers. In a field study with 40,000 donors, a charity boosted revenue by 42 percent when they followed a similar approach (Esterzon et al., 2023).

• Show the Journey of a Donation. Charity: Water produced a video that illustrates how they’re able to extract maximum impact from each donation.

• Aknin, L. B., Dunn, E. W., Whillans, A. V., Grant, A. M., & Norton, M. I. (2013). Making a difference matters: Impact unlocks the emotional benefits of prosocial spending. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 88, 90-95.
• Esterzon, E., Lemmens, A., & Van den Bergh, B. (2023). Enhancing Donor Agency to Improve Charitable Giving: Strategies and Heterogeneity. JOURNAL OF MARKETING.
• Fisher, R. J., Vandenbosch, M., & Antia, K. D. (2008). An empathy-helping perspective on consumers' responses to fund-raising appeals. Journal of consumer research, 35(3), 519-531.