Donor Contributions Research Articles

Aiming for the Goal: Contribution Dynamics of Crowdfunding

We study a dynamic contribution game where investors seek private benefits offered in exchange for contributions, and a single, publicly minded donor values project success. We show that donor contributions serve as costly signals that encourage socially productive contributions by investors who face a coordination problem. Investors and the donor prefer different equilibria, but all benefit in expectation from the donor’s ability to dynamically signal his valuation. We explore various contexts in which our model can be applied and delve empirically into the case of Kickstarter. We calibrate our model and quantify the coordination benefits of dynamic signaling in counterfactuals. (JEL C73, D26, D82, G32, L26, M13)

Motivational Drivers in Donation-Based Crowdfunding Systems: Empirical In-sights from the Ehsan Platform in Saudi Arabia

Crowdfunding is an effective method for raising funds, with donation-based crowdfunding standing apart from other models due to the absence of rewards or financial returns for donors. This research focuses on understanding the motivating factors behind Saudi society's partici-pation in donation-based crowdfunding, specifically on the Ehsan platform. Through analyzing 30 successful campaigns, conducting surveys, and interviewing a social media influencer, we explore intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, campaign features that attract support, and the impact of influencers. Our findings highlight the significant positive influence exerted by in-fluencers, emphasizing the critical role of clear campaign descriptions and compelling story-telling. Additionally, we identify the preferred campaign types, such as debt, orphan spon-sorship, disaster relief, and the optimal timing for donor contributions. The study reveals that Saudi participants engage in donation-based crowdfunding campaigns on the Ehsan platform primarily driven by sympathy, personal satisfaction, and a sense of community. The trustwor-thiness of campaigns and the platform's user-friendly interface emerge as crucial factors in fostering donor engagement. Notably, our research underscores the higher success rate of se-curing sponsorships for younger orphans and the increased donor engagement during religious events. Moreover, this research recognizes the importance of sustainability in donation-based crowdfunding campaigns on the Ehsan platform. Future investigations will encompass an ex-tensive analysis of crowdfunding platforms in Saudi Arabia, contributing to further ad-vancements in this field.

Examining aid fragmentation and collaboration opportunities in Cambodia’s health sector

BackgroundCambodia’s health sector faces significant challenges exacerbated by aid fragmentation, where development aid is dispersed among numerous small, uncoordinated projects. This study examines the distribution of health sector aid among Cambodia’s principal donors to identify priorities, overlaps, and potential collaboration opportunities, addressing the urgent need for aid efficiency and alignment with national health priorities.MethodsUtilizing OECD datasets and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) for the years 2010–2021, this study quantifies aid fragmentation within Cambodia’s health sector. It analyzes aid allocations from the top five donors—United States, Australia, South Korea, Japan, and Germany—across various health projects and initiatives, evaluating the extent of fragmentation and identifying areas for potential donor collaboration.ResultsThis study’s findings highlight a pervasive issue of aid fragmentation within Cambodia’s health sector, evident through the sector’s low HHI score. This indicates a widespread distribution of aid across numerous small-scale initiatives, rather than targeted, unified efforts. A notable example includes Japan and Korea, which exhibit lower HHI scores, indicating a more pronounced fragmentation in their aid allocation. These countries’ contributions are spread across various sectors without a dominant focus, contrasting with the United States’ significant dedication to infectious disease control. However, beyond this specific area, the US’s aid distribution across other priority health areas shows signs of fragmentation. This scattered approach to aid allocation, even amidst instances of focused support, illustrates the overarching challenge of aligning donor contributions with the holistic needs of Cambodia’s health infrastructure.ConclusionsThis investigation highlights the critical need for enhanced collaboration and strategic harmonization among international donors to mitigate aid fragmentation in Cambodia’s health sector. It underscores the importance of adopting integrated and priority-aligned aid strategies to improve the efficiency and impact of health aid. By fostering synergistic partnerships and harmonizing donor efforts, there is a potential to create a more cohesive support framework that resonates with Cambodia’s comprehensive health requirements and contributes to sustainable health outcomes. Such harmonization not only aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 3 by optimizing health services and outcomes but also strengthens global partnerships under Sustainable Development Goal 17, fostering a unified approach to international development.

한국 유상원조 사업의 공공외교적 효과 검토

Purpose: This paper investigates the efficacy of aid in support from recipient country citizens assuming that aid capable of winning their favor benefits donor countries. Originality: The public diplomacy impact of aid serves as a crucial intermediary step for donor countries in achieving anticipated political and economic outcomes. Despite this, prior research has neglected to explore how aid influences the perceptions of citizens in recipient countries. This study addresses this gap by examining the public diplomacy effects of aid through specific cases, contributing to academic diversity and offering policy insights. Methodology: A literature review analyzed previous research, while a survey assessed specific cases. The survey targeted 100 users of the Korea EDCF Vietnam Vam Cong Bridge and local residents, employing descriptive statistical and regression analyses. Result: Eighty percent of respondents displayed varying levels of awareness regarding Korea's contribution to the Vam cong Bridge construction, attributing it to significantly increasing awareness, likability, and interest in Korea. Regression analysis confirmed a positive correlation between recognition of Korea's contribution and changes in awareness, likability, and interest. Additionally, respondents who highly appreciated the bridge's economic benefits displayed greater likability, and interest in Korea. Conclusion and Implication: The Vam cong Bridge's construction demonstrated a relatively high public diplomacy effect. To enhance future aid initiatives, proactive dissemination of Korea's contributions is crucial. Moreover, providing effective economic benefits fosters goodwill and interest in Korea among recipient country residents. Therefore, winning the hearts of recipient country citizens through aid necessitates both transparent communication of donor contributions and the delivery of substantial economic benefits.

Characterization of heterogeneous skin constructs for full thickness skin regeneration in murine wound models

An autologous heterogeneous skin construct (AHSC) has been developed and used clinically as an alternative to traditional skin grafting techniques for treatment of cutaneous defects. AHSC is manufactured from a small piece of healthy skin in a manner that preserves endogenous regenerative cellular populations. To date however, specific cellular and non-cellular contributions of AHSC to the epidermal and dermal layers of closed wounds have not been well characterized given limited clinical opportunity for graft biopsy following wound closure. To address this limitation, a three-part mouse full-thickness excisional wound model was developed for histologic and macroscopic graft tracing. First, fluorescent mouse-derived AHSC (mHSC) was allografted onto non-fluorescent recipient mice to enable macroscopic and histologic time course evaluation of wound closure. Next, mHSC-derived from haired pigmented mice was allografted onto gender- and major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-mismatched athymic nude mouse recipients. Resulting grafts were distinguished from recipient murine skin via immunohistochemistry. Finally, human-derived AHSC (hHSC) was xenografted onto athymic nude mice to evaluate engraftment and hHSC contribution to wound closure. Experiments demonstrated that mHSC and hHSC facilitated wound closure through production of viable, proliferative cellular material and promoted full-thickness skin regeneration, including hair follicles and glands in dermal compartments. This combined macroscopic and histologic approach to tracing AHSC-treated wounds from engraftment to closure enabled robust profiling of regenerated architecture and further understanding of processes underlying AHSC mechanism of action. These models may be applied to a variety of wound care investigations, including those requiring longitudinal assessments of healing and targeted identification of donor and recipient tissue contributions.

Intramolecular boron-locking strategy induced remarkable first hyperpolarizability: role of torsion angles between donor and acceptor units.

In conventional strategies to design donor-acceptor (D-A) organic molecules with a large electronic contribution to the first hyperpolarizability (β), the effects of the torsion angles (θ1 and θ2) between donor and acceptor moieties are barely considered. To address this issue, in this work, a promising and novel intramolecular boron-locking strategy combined with the different locking groups of different acceptors to control θ1 and θ2, has been proposed to make D-A organic molecules with large β values. Intriguingly, reducing the torsion angles will make the β value of the pyridiny thiophene triphenylamine unit (Py-Th-TPA) dramatically increase up to 94%, which is mainly ascribed to the smaller θ1 and θ2 leading to lower excited energy of the crucial excited state, and enhanced charge transfer (CT) from TPA to Py-Th moieties, and finally greatly increase the donor and acceptor part contributions to β. Correlation between the difference, |θ1 - θ2| and β, provides a large coefficient of determination, R2 = 0.78, which demonstrates that |θ1 - θ2| can be regarded as a potential descriptor for designing nonlinear optics (NLO) materials with D-A architecture. Clearly, we uncovered that θ1 and θ2 play a crucial role in the performance of NLO materials with D-A fragments.

Collectively achieving primary health care and educational goals through school-based platforms: financing solutions for intersectoral collaboration.

Despite abundant evidence demonstrating that improvements to health and education are positively correlated, and the importance of school-based platforms to achieve shared impacts, collaboration between ministries of health and education remains limited across low- and middle-income countries. Enhancing this collaboration is essential to realize mutually beneficial results, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely impacted health and education outcomes globally and highlighted the importance of resilient, domestically funded systems for delivering key social services including primary health care and education. We argue that the lack of an effective joint financing mechanism has hindered adoption of collaborative multisectoral approaches such as the WHO/UNESCO's Health Promoting Schools (HPS) model. HPS is well-positioned to organize, finance, and deliver primary health care and education services through a school-based platform and strategy. Case studies from several low- and middle-income countries highlight the need to expand limited inter-ministerial collaborations to achieve cross-sectoral benefits and ensure sustainability of HPS beyond the lifecycle of external partners' support. It is important to identify ways to widen the resource envelope for sector-specific activities and create efficiencies through mutually beneficial outcomes. This paper offers two pragmatic solutions: an inter-ministerial joint financing mechanism that starts with alignment of budgets but matures into a formal system for pooling funds, or a fixed-term co-financing mechanism that uses donor contributions to catalyze inter-ministerial collaborations. Achieving sustainability in these initiatives would require engaging the ministries of health, education, and finance; developing a common administrative, financial, and monitoring mechanism; and securing long-term commitment from all concerned stakeholders.

Red Bank

The Blood Bank MERN (MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, Node.js) Stack Project is an innovative and user-friendly web application designed to facilitate the process of blood donation, request, and management. This platform aims to bridge the gap between blood donors and recipients, making the blood donation process more efficient and accessible. Users can register accounts as donors or recipients by providing their personal details, blood type, and contact information. The authentication system ensures secure access to user accounts and prevents unauthorized access. Registered donors can view and update their profiles, including personal information, contact details, and blood donation history. Donors can schedule appointments for blood donation, and the platform will notify them of upcoming appointments. Recipients in need of blood can create donation requests, specifying the required blood type and quantity. The platform will notify eligible donors based on the requested blood type and location. The system maintains a real-time inventory of available blood units based on donor contributions. Donors' blood types are matched with recipients' requirements to facilitate quick and efficient blood allocation.

Philanthropy scandals and regular donations: the role of email marketing communications

ABSTRACT Charitable organisations are principled actors providing essential community services. However, due to some highly publicised charity scandals in recent years, they are under increased scrutiny today. This study explores the impact of negative publicity (i.e. publicly reported scandals) about charitable organisations on the contributions of regular donors and analyses the moderating role of email marketing communications as a key factor in counteracting the impact of negative publicity on donations. The results of analysing a sample of regular donors during the period 2013–2020 reveal that negative publicity about charities reduces the amount donated, and that this effect is stronger on the contributions of more frequent donors, who are potentially more sensitive to this publicity. This impact is softened by email marketing communications. The implications for the field of marketing management in charities are discussed.

Managing Large Donor Influence

ABSTRACT Private organizations that produce public goods often receive offers for funding from large donors who seek to influence the nature of the public goods produced. We consider a model in which the potential for large donor influence creates a commitment problem for the organization in the sense that, from an ex ante perspective, the organization sets the price for influence too low given the opportunity cost. Our analysis identifies determinants of the likelihood of large donor influence and assesses various mechanisms that can alleviate or exploit the commitment problem—greater transparency, organization leadership preferences and/or incentives, and targeted small donor campaigns. Finally, we assess how an option to walk back influential large donor contributions or an inability to commit to longer-term agreements with influential donors alters the implications of potential large donor influence. JEL Classifications: D64; L31.

Blood transfusion for children in sub-Saharan Africa: 200 years on

In 1818, James Blundell completed the first successful human blood transfusion. This life-saving medical intervention has revolutionised patient care globally in the past two centuries. Nevertheless, many challenges remain in implementing safe blood transfusion procedures, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa 1 Ala F Allain JP Bates I et al. External financial aid to blood transfusion services in sub-Saharan Africa: a need for reflection. PLoS Med. 2012; 9e1001309 Crossref PubMed Scopus (53) Google Scholar where demand predominantly centres on acute paediatric severe anaemia and haemorrhagic complications of pregnancy and trauma. Severe anaemia, when the haemoglobin concentration drops below 6 g/dL, is very common in children admitted to hospital in sub-Saharan Africa. Infectious diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and sickle cell anaemia are the major underlying causes of anaemia. Outcomes remain unsatisfactory, with high mortality and high hospital readmission rates within 6 months of initial admission. 2 Phiri KS Calis JC Faragher B et al. Long term outcome of severe anaemia in Malawian children. PLoS One. 2008; 3e2903 Crossref PubMed Scopus (75) Google Scholar World Blood Donor Day on June 14, 2023, calls for donors to “Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often”. Not only is this a day to celebrate the charitable contributions of blood donors, it is an important opportunity to raise awareness that every pint of blood donated results in critically important life-sustaining therapy, especially for children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Experimental Models of Mouse and Human Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.

Experimental hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is an invaluable tool in determining the function and characteristics of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) from experimental mouse and human donor groups. These groups could include, but are not limited to, genetically altered populations (gene knockout/knockin models), ex vivo manipulated cell populations, or in vivo modulated cell populations. The basic fundamentals of this process involve taking cells from a mouse/human donor source and putting them into another mouse (recipient) after preconditioning of the recipient with either total body irradiation (TBI) for mouse donor cells or into sublethally irradiated immune-deficient mice for human donor cells. Then, at pre-determined time pointspost-transplant, sampling a small amount of peripheral blood (PB) and at the termination of the evalaution, bone marrow (BM) to determine donor contribution and function by phenotypic analysis. Exploiting the congenic mouse strains of C57BL/6 (CD45.1- CD45.2+), BoyJ (CD45.1+ CD45.2-), and their F1-crossed hybrid C57BL/6×BoyJ (CD45.1+ CD45.2+), we are able to quantify donor, competitor, and recipient mouse cell contributions to the engraftment state. Human donor cell engraftment (e.g., from the cord blood [CB], mobilized PB, or BM) is assessed by human cell phenotyping in sublethally irradiated immune-deficient mouse recipients (e.g., NOD scid gamma mice that are deficient in B cells, T cells, and natural killer cells and have defective dendritic cells and macrophages). Engraftment of cells from primary mouse recipients into secondary mice allows for an estimation of the self-renewal capacity of the original donor HSC. This chapter outlines concepts, methods, and techniques for mouse and human cell models of HSCT and for assessment of donor cells collected and processed in hypoxia versus ambient air.

Differential contributions of electron donors to denitrification in the flooding-drying process of a paddy soil

Flooding-drying (FD) is an important process causing nitrous oxide (N2O) emission in paddy field, which is mainly driven by denitrification. However, information on the contributions of the electron donors to soil denitrification during FD is limited. In this study, the potential contributions of various electron donors to denitrification during FD in a paddy soil were estimated using a 9-d soil incubation experiment without rice plants cultivation in a chamber. The results showed that during continuous flooding (CF), the soil remained very low denitrifying activity, and CH4 was the major electron donor for the denitrification with contribution of 28.85–45.23%. In the FD treatment, the soil N2O concentration and flux in 0–5 d were significantly lower than that in 5–9 d. Therefore, the estimations were based on these two phases. The Fe2+ and Mn2+ contents rapidly decreased, while the NO3−-N content slowly increased during the first 5 d of drying. However, the outstanding feature during 5–9 d drying was that the soil CH4 concentration decreased, and the cumulative oxidation of CH4 increased. The stoichiometry of the electrons showed that the potential contributions of Fe2+, Mn2+, CH4, and other electron donors to the denitrification were 51.29%, 45.88%, 2.82%, and 0% in the first phase, and 12.15%, 1.35%, 6.17%, and 80.33% in the second phase, respectively. Thus, the autotrophic denitrification driven by Fe2+ and Mn2+ would be the main mechanisms for gaseous N-loss during the first phase of drying, whereas, the other electron donors, including organic matter, were the major contributors for denitrification in the second phase. These findings should be considered when implementing measures to mitigate N2O and CH4 emissions from paddy fields.

Investigating the Contributions of Human Body Donors in the United States

Working with human cadavers for anatomical education dates back to the Middle Ages. In modern day, anatomist still believe the best way to learn anatomy is through the wonderful gift of human body donors (Balta et al, 2015). Additionally, teaching the general public anatomy may increase health literacy, allowing individuals to make healthier decisions for their body (Taylor et al, 2017). In this study we aim to investigate the work supported by human body donors at academic institutions in the United States and how institutions are working to best maximize this gift. A questionnaire using Qualtrics was sent to 125 body donation programs in the United States. The questionnaire consisted of a series of conditional questions to assess how each institution works with their body donors. From the 125 invited programs, 46 have completed the questionnaire. 96.7% of the institutions utilize a hard fixation method and of those body donors undergoing hard fixation, 87.9% of the body donors support anatomical teaching. Additionally, 32.6% of the institutions have a soft preservation method. 49.5% of these donors support clinical skills training. Lastly, 45.7% of the institutions work with fresh frozen donors. 66.5% of fresh frozen body donors support clinical skills training as well. The data also shows that at these institutions, donors that have underwent the hard fixation process can be worked with indefinitely depending on their utilization and proper maintenance. Whereas soft preservative and fresh frozen body donors begin decomposition much sooner. Overall, the data suggests that hard fixation is more appropriately correlated with teaching human anatomy, while fresh frozen and soft preservation tend to support clinical skills training. This is most likely due to the sheer number of students that are taught on human body donors daily. Therefore, teaching anatomy using the human body donors, you need to utilize an embalming method that will last an extended period and is relatively easy to produce. Additionally, 92.5% of the surveyed institutions, allow faculty and staff to take photographs of body donors and 14% allow students to take photos as well for educational purposes. Lastly, 39% of the institutions allow individuals to work with human body donors for educational purposes to teach the public in outreach and continuing education settings. These unique tools and applications institutions employ allow them to further maximize their work with body donors. Also, with the appropriate embalming method, educators can teach students in an efficient and effective manner. Knowing the appropriate preservation method to utilize for a particular purpose will also help maximize the gift of donation while enhancing the education process for students and teachers.

Commitment and innovation on the road to people-centred PHC financing

Commitment and innovation on the road to people-centred PHC financing

Differential Contributions of Electron Donors to Denitrification Along the Proceeding of Flooding-Drying Process in a Paddy Soil

Differential Contributions of Electron Donors to Denitrification Along the Proceeding of Flooding-Drying Process in a Paddy Soil

The impact of relative CEO compensation on not-for-profit contributions

PurposeThe authors extend research suggesting that external funders reduce their contributions to not-for-profit (NFP) organizations in response to media-reported CEO compensation levels.Design/methodology/approachEmploying a maximum archival sample of 44,807 observations from US Form 990s, the authors comprehensively assess the extent that high relative NFP CEO compensation is associated with decreases in future contributions.FindingsThe authors find that donors and grantors react negatively to high relative CEO compensation but do not react adversely to high absolute executive compensation. Contributors seem to take issue with CEO compensation when they perceive it absorbs a relatively large portion of the organizations’ total expenses, which may hinder the NFP’s mission. Additional findings suggest that excess cash held by the NFP significantly exacerbates the negative baseline relationship between future contributions and high relative CEO compensation. Finally, both individual donors and professional grantors are sensitive to cash NFP CEO compensation levels, but grantors are more sensitive to CEO noncash compensation.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors’ data are focused on larger NFP organizations, so this limits the generalizability of the study. Furthermore, survivorship bias potentially influences their time-series investigations because a current year large-scale decrease in funding due to high relative CEO compensation may cause some NFP firms to drop out of the sample the following year due to significant funding reductions.Originality/valueThe study makes three noteworthy contributions to the literature. First, the study documents that the negative association between high relative CEO compensation levels and future donor and grantor contributions is much more widespread than previous literature suggested. Second, the authors document that high relative CEO compensation levels that trigger reductions in future contributions are significantly exacerbated by excess cash held by the NFP. Finally, the authors find that more sophisticated grantors are more sensitive to noncash CEO compensation levels as compared with donors.

Donors talk: the signaling and imprinting effects of giving to social enterprises

How should donors fund microfinance enterprises and maximize social impact? Should they spread contributions across organizations or concentrate them? We address this thorny issue by assessing separately how the act of giving a donation and the amount donated affect the social performance of MFOs worldwide. Drawing on signaling theory, we hypothesize that the act of giving has a more significant impact on social performance than the actual amount donated. Moreover, we show an imprinting effect on social performance that persists even when donations dry up. That is, the enhanced social performance observed during subsidized periods is not reversed during subsequent unsubsidized periods. The persistence of subsidy-linked social performance suggests that designing smart-subsidy strategies is appropriate for the microfinance industry in order to maximize social benefits while keeping market distortions under control. Further, the global social impact of diversified donor contributions across many organizations may be greater than that of concentrated funding in a few.

Small Donor Contributions in Response to Email Outreach by a Political Campaign

This research examines variation in response to mass email communications by a large and sophisticated political campaign over the course of the 2018 election cycle. Computational text analysis is utilized to generate and catalogue the most frequent themes across a body of 690 separate email messages. We find open rates vary somewhat by the subject key words of messages as well as when they were sent. In addition, small donations received through email are also responsive to the contents of messages, controlling for timing and other relevant factors. Given the very low cost associated with using email to communicate with supporters, it appears to be an effective means for harvesting small contributions and of providing opportunities for large numbers of voters to elevate their level of participation in the electoral process.

The Politics of Being an Archival Donor

Traditional archival praxis oftentimes depicts the archival donor as an observer and recipient of services or benefits. One that can either comply with the rules and expectations set forth by the archivist and archival institution when donating their materials or walk away from the process and opportunity. Despite the historic role of donor contributions in the form of archival donations, donors and their needs remain overlooked in much of the archival literature. Instead, current archival paradigms tend to focus more on the archival materials more so than the people behind them. But what if donors and archivists could reimagine their relationship and the ethical obligations associated with this bond?
 This article applies Michelle Caswell and Marika Cifor’s archival theory of radical empathy combined with the theoretical framework of political consciousness as set forth by Black feminism. Using these frameworks, the research study uses a mixed method approach that includes a literature review of relationships in the archival field and a qualitative conventional content analysis of collected interview data from the donor case study of living music artist donors. As archivists seek to improve collection development and acquisition practices more attention must be placed on the care, affirmation, and wellbeing of the archival donor. Through collaboration with donors, archivists can strengthen archival practices by centering people and not just the things. By combining an ethics of care which introduces “a web of mutual affective responsibility” alongside the construction of a donor political consciousness, this article shows how donor participation contributes and strengthen archival practices that center people and not just things. The article and findings offer a distinct pathway to better understand the challenges, limitations, and possibilities of donor relationships and the benefits of donors recognizing the importance of active participation and understanding of their role in the archival process.
 Pre-print first published online 02/26/2021