Persuasion, Donor Heterogeneity, and Workload: The Impact of Charitable Workers on Donors’ Blood Donation Decisions

Abstract

Problem definition: How does charitable workers’ experience affect donors’ donation decisions? We demonstrate how different types of charitable workers’ experiences affect their interactions with donors and thus the corresponding donation outcomes. Academic / Practical Relevance: Most of the existing charitable giving papers in the non-profit literature focus on the donor-side efforts to increase donations. There exists little evidence which illustrates the potential of improving charitable productivity from the side of charitable workers. Improving charitable productivity is important, and especially critical in the current COVID-19 pandemic, with severe blood shortages occurring due to heightened demand for blood and decreased number of blood donors. Methodology: Using a unique dataset at the nurse-donor interaction level, we analyze the role of nurse persuasion in driving charitable productivity as well as the moderating effect of nurse experience with donor physical capabilities and nurse workload.Results: We find that the persuasion ability of the nurse and physical dimension of donors play important roles in designing staffing to improve charitable productivity. The effect of staff persuasion strongly depends on the relevant, rather than general, experience of the nurse. Moreover, donors that are physically-disadvantaged are more likely to be influenced by nurse persuasion. Nurse persuasion may also reduce the negative effects of workload.Managerial Implications: When taking the insights on staffing-donor interactions into account, improved matching between nurses and donors can provide economically significant benefits for the blood bank. Understanding worker persuasion in the staff-donor interactions and leveraging big data in staffing decisions can help charitable organizations improve their productivity simply from the personnel end.