Donation Allocation Research Articles

Manifestasi Ta’awun NGO Islam Dalam Menyantuni Golongan B40 di Sabah Semasa Pandemik Covid-19

The expression of ta’awun is actualized through engaging in volunteer work to fulfil the societal duty of taking care of the impoverished or B40 group. This volunteering initiative is conducted by an Islamic-oriented Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) with the aim of assisting the B40 in Sabah during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article explores the allocation of COVID-19 donations facilitated by Islamic NGOs and the motivating elements behind these efforts to organise volunteer initiative for the B40 group in Sabah, encompassing both urban and rural areas. Data gathering employs qualitative methods by conducting in-depth interviews with representatives of Islamic NGO leaders, notably Sabah An-Najiyah Charity Organisation (PKAN) and Aman Palestin Sabah (APS). The study’s findings indicate that the expression of ta’awun, demonstrated through NGO Islamic charity, extends beyond irregular or occasional material assistance. It also encompasses aid that has the potential to transform the mindset and lifestyle of the B40 group towards an Islamic way of life. The motivation to persist in serving others is fueled by the inherent resilience cultivated through adherence to Islamic principles, which emphasise the perpetual concern for the ummah, the pursuit of virtuous deeds, and the pursuit of rewards in the hereafter. The type of work being referred to is what sets Islamic NGOs apart from other NGOs that also carry out social programmes focused on well-being. This study will give impact on how the activities of Islamic-oriented NGOs contribute to broader community development in Sabah, particularly on the empowerment of marginalized groups.

Blockchain Based Donation Management in Disaster Response

Both natural and man-made disaster leave thousands of people in vulnerable and in need for essential aid. While individuals generously donate resources, traditional donation management systems suffer from limitations. Centralized control, opaque transactions, and potential corruption often hinder aid delivery and leave victims in despair. This paper proposes a novel Ethereum blockchain-based system for transparent and secure disaster donation management. Utilizing smart contracts, the system ensures traceability, accountability, and immutability of donations, empowering donors and fostering trust. This paper presents the system's architecture, detailing its components and interactions through sequence diagrams and algorithms. Additionally, successful testing on the Sepolia Ethereum testnet validates its functionality. To assess its effectiveness, a cost and security analysis is conducted. This blockchain-based framework offers a promising solution for transparent and efficient disaster response, potentially revolutionizing donation management. Further research, particularly on donation allocation optimization within the system holds immense potential for future development.

Impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on blood supply in two large university hospitals.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between the decrease in elective procedures and the need for blood donation during the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic at university hospitals. The COVID-19 pandemic has immensely impacted transfusion medicine. By cancelling elective surgery, the German government hoped to increase the available resources for patients infected with COVID-19, especially in intensive care units, and prevent the shortage of blood products. Over 26 weeks, from the 3rd of February 2020 to the 2nd of August 2020, during the first phase of the pandemic, we assessed the number of crossmatches, blood group typing, use of donated blood, and case mix indices by retrospectively analysing data from two major university hospitals' information systems in Essen and Hamburg, Germany. Data were pooled, analysed, and compared with that of the same period in the previous year. Following the cessation of elective procedures, the number of requests for crossmatches and blood group typing significantly decreased in 2020 compared to that in 2019. However, the number of blood transfusions required was reduced to a lesser extent. The number of outpatient and inpatient cases significantly decreased, whereas the cases requiring transfusion decreased only. During the initial phase of the pandemic, transfusion medicine, especially in large institutions, faced an almost unchanged high demand for donated blood. This should be considered regarding personnel and blood donation allocations. Therefore, we developed a monitoring system to display the availability of blood products in real-time. The quick and easy display of in-stock and expiring blood products can optimise the use of this valuable resource.

Evidence that donors with variant RH genotypes are associated with unexpected Rh antibodies.

We previously reported unexpected Rh antibodies in the plasma of patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) that demonstrated common Rh specificities in the absence of transfusion of RBCs positive for that antigen. We hypothesize that these antibodies might result from transfusion of antigen-negative donor units with variant RH genotypes. Plasma testing by tube and IgG gel, extended RBC phenotyping, and HEA and RH genotyping were by standard methods. A 6-year-old female with SCD, phenotype D + C-c + E-e + K- undergoing exchange transfusion with CEK- and Fy(a-) units, presented with anti-C in the plasma, a + DAT and warm autoantibody (WAA) in the eluate. Her RH genotype was unremarkable: RHD*D/DAU0 and RHCE*ce/ce(48C). Units (n = 10) transfused over the prior 6 months were confirmed CEK- by serology and DNA testing. Most (n = 7) were Rh-negative. A unit with variant RH, RHD*DIIIa/weak partial 4.0, RHCE*ceVS.03/ceVS.02, was transfused 5 weeks prior. Anti-C and + DAT continued to demonstrate for 25 weeks. Total hemoglobin and % Hgb S did not deviate from her established baseline. We show direct association of plasma anti-C with transfusion of a C-negative unit with variant RH encoding partial D and uncommon V/VS+ hrB - phenotype. The antibody was transient, without evidence of compromised survival of transfused RBCs. The +DAT and WAA complicated workups and selection of units, and it is uncertain whether donors of the same genotype should be avoided. Minority donors are important for CEK-matching to avoid depleting Rh-negative supplies. Consideration of patient and donor RH genotypes may avoid unexpected antibodies and improve allocation of rare donations.

Get the happiness out-An online experiment on the causal effects of positive emotions on giving.

Our study provides new evidence on the impact of positive emotions on voluntary contributions to public goods in a natural setting. Using a lab-in-field experiment, we induce positive incidental emotions randomly and analyze their effects on donations using a dictator game with multiple beneficiaries. Although we find no significant overall effect of positive incidental emotions on donation levels, our results show a significant shift in the allocation of donations towards the host charity. These findings shed light on the complex role of emotions in donation behavior and can provide valuable insights for organizations seeking to increase charitable giving.

Worldwide organ allocation systems for pediatric lung transplantation.

Pediatric lung transplantation (LTX) remains limited by the scarcity of small donor lungs, particularly in less populated parts of the world. Optimal organ allocation, including the prioritization and ranking of pediatric LTX candidates, and the appropriate matching of pediatric donors to recipients have been crucial elements in improving pediatric LTX outcomes. We aimed to elucidate the various pediatric lung allocation practices worldwide. A global survey of current pediatric solid organ transplantation deceased donation allocation practices was conducted by the International Pediatric Transplant Association (IPTA), and these policies were subsequently analyzed if publicly available, with focus on pediatric lung transplantation. Significant variation was found in lung allocation systems worldwide both in terms of prioritization and distribution for children. Definition of pediatrics varied from <12 years of age to <18 years of age. While several countries performing LTX for young children do not have a formal system to prioritize pediatric candidates, many countries that perform LTX at higher rates do offer prioritization methods for children: including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Australia, and countries serviced by Eurotransplant. Certain lung allocation practices for pediatrics are highlighted herein, including the newly instituted Composite Allocation Score (CAS) system in the United States, pediatric matching with Eurotransplant, and pediatric prioritization in Spain. The systems highlighted here explicitly aim to provide judicious and high quality LTX care for children.

No one is an island: Awe encourages global citizenship identification.

Recent theorizing has suggested that awe is a collective emotion, as research has demonstrated a clear link between experiencing awe and behaving prosocially. The present research extends past work by investigating the scope and sources of awe-inspired prosociality, focusing on whether awe's effects extend beyond local/national interests to include global or humanitarian goals. Specifically, we examine how by increasing feelings of smallness, awe encourages a sense of global citizenship, promoting cosmopolitan (vs. parochial) prosociality. Four experiments found that varied awe elicitors (recall, pictures, videos) and cues (universe, peaceful/fearful nature scenes) boost global citizenship identification by first increasing perception of the self as small. Downstream effects included greater valuing of interconnectedness (Experiment 2) and higher appreciation of diversity (Experiment 3). In Experiment 4, awe-through small self- and global citizenship-further translated into larger donation allocations to global (vs. local) charities. Given global problems such as pandemics and climate change, our findings have implications for how emotions can promote a sense of shared responsibility when commitment across borders is essential. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

On the equity-efficiency trade-off in food-bank network operations

In this paper, we present a novel modeling perspective to the food-bank donation allocation problem under equity and efficiency performance measures. Using a penalty factor in the objective function, our model explicitly accounts for both efficiency and equity, simultaneously. We give the tightest lower and upper bounds of the penalty factor, which can conveniently characterize closed-form optimal solutions for the perfect efficiency and perfect equity cases. Testing our model on the full spectrum of our penalty factor, using real data from Feeding America, we demonstrate that the solutions from our model dominate those of a benchmark from the literature in terms of both equity and efficiency, being on the Pareto frontier. Our sensitivity analysis demonstrates that assisting the food-banks should go hand-in-hand with helping eliminate poverty in the demand population. This will ensure that adding more capacity to the network will always lead to a decrease in the price of equity for the food-banks. On the other hand, our results reveal that encouraging charitability is always beneficial for the food-banks, albeit with diminishing returns. Finally, we extend our model to the case with stochastic receiving capacities and derive additional insights with regards to the inherent trade-offs between equity, efficiency, and reliability in the network.

Allocation to pediatric recipients around the world: An IPTA global survey of current pediatric solid organ transplantation deceased donation allocation practices.

There has not been a comprehensive global survey of pediatric-deceased donor allocation practices across all organs since the advent of deceased donor transplantation at the end of the 20th century. As an international community that is responsible for transplanting children, we set out to survey the existing landscape of allocation. We aimed to summarize current practices and provide a snapshot overview of deceased donor allocation practices to children across the world. The International Registry in Organ Donation and Transplantation (IRODAT, www.irodat.org) was utilized to generate a list of all countries in the world, divided by continent, that performed transplantation. We reviewed the published literature, published allocation policy, individual website references and associated links to publicly available listed allocation policies. Following this, we utilized tools of communication, relationships, and international fellowship to confirm deceased donation pediatric centers and survey pediatric allocation practices for liver, kidney, heart, and lung across the world. We summarize pediatric allocation practices by organ when available using source documents, and personal communication when no source documents were available. The majority of countries had either formal or informal policies directed toward minimizing organ distribution disparity among pediatric patients. Children have long-term life to gain from organ donation yet continue to die while awaiting transplantation. We summarize global strategies that have been employed to provide meaningful and sustained benefit to children on the waitlist.

Heart Transplantation: A Bibliometric Review From 1990-2021.

As the rapidly aging population and the rising incidence of end-stage heart failure, extensive research has been conducted on heart transplantation (HTx). Bibliometrics harbors the function for describing the relationships of knowledge structures in different research fields and predicting the growth trend. The publications were searched and filtered based on the Web of Science core database. The target literature was visualized and analyzed by CiteSpace or VOSviewer. In total, 19,998 published papers were obtained. There is a wave-like growth in HTx development. Most advanced research results are concentrated in a few developed countries, while the interactions with developing countries are still in infancy. The United States occupies a strong dominant position among active countries on HTx. Early research hotpots mostly focused on primary disease, survival risk factors, and complications. In recent years, the research frontiers have shifted steadily to clinical evaluation of immunosuppressants and diagnosis of acute rejection, cardiac re-injury with coronavirus disease 2019, innovations in ventricular assist devices, and donation allocation strategies. The research directions of HTx are gradually shifting from observational studies to intervention research.

Corrigendum to: Social Class Shapes Donation Allocation Preferences

Corrigendum to: Social Class Shapes Donation Allocation Preferences

How scolding can encourage consumer engagement with plastic waste issue? The moderating role of consumers’ mindset

Extant literature has reported mixed findings on the effectiveness of praising versus scolding in social marketing messages, such as how to encourage consumer engagement with plastic waste issue. Against this backdrop, this research investigates the moderating role of consumers' mindset in this regard. This research reports two experimental studies and demonstrates that consumers with a growth (vs. fixed) mindset will experience higher levels of outcome efficacy when evaluating a scolding (vs. praising) message. In addition, this research employs different methods of eliciting consumers' mindset and examines different dependent variables (product choice in Study 1 and donation allocations in Study 2). The results of this research thus offer a fresh theoretical perspective on the effectiveness of scolding (vs. praising) in enhancing consumer engagement with plastic waste issue by examining the moderating role of consumers’ mindset and establishing the underlying mechanism.

Social Class Shapes Donation Allocation Preferences

Abstract When considering a charitable act, consumers must often decide on how to allocate their resources across a multitude of possible causes. This article assesses how the relative “urgency” of the causes under consideration (i.e., how critical to human survival the causes are) shapes preferences for specific causes among higher and lower social class consumers. Across a series of studies in a highly unequal socioeconomic environment (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), we demonstrate that lower-class consumers prefer to donate to urgent causes (e.g., alleviating hunger) compared to non-urgent causes (e.g., encouraging cultural activities), whereas the effect reverses among higher-class consumers. Contrasting experiences with scarcity across social classes vary the consumers’ intrinsic sympathy toward people’s unmet basic needs, which in turn shapes donation allocation preferences. Consistent with this theoretical rationale, class differences in charitable allocations decrease when (a) vivid contextual cues induce sympathy among both higher- and lower-class consumers or (b) the experience with scarcity is similar across social classes. Thus, although class differences in preferences for specific causes can be shifted with relative ease, our findings suggest that those who have the most to give do not spontaneously prioritize what is most urgently needed in society.

Does self-esteem inflation mitigate mortality salience effects on suicide attitudes?

Suicide stigma is a major barrier to prevention and intervention efforts. Using terror management theory as the guiding framework, the present study examined whether enhancing self-esteem would buffer against suicide stigma and lead to prosocial attitudes and behavior. Experimental methods were utilized in the present study. After being primed with death-related thoughts, participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (1) positive feedback (experimental group) and (2) no feedback (control group). The dependent variables included (1) evaluations of a suicide decedent, (2) intentions to intervene against suicide, and (3) charitable donation behavior toward a suicide prevention organization. The most consistent findings for the self-esteem boost hypothesis were for the interaction effects of death anxiety and self-esteem boost for the donation allocation task and intentions to intervene against suicide. For participants who were reminded of death, the self-esteem boost intervention mitigated the negative impact of death anxiety on donation behavior (i.e., an average difference of $16.37). Positive feedback for participants with reported low self-esteem also led to increased willingness to intervene against suicide. These findings provide some promising potential for the self-esteem enhancement intervention to attenuate defensive reactions to suicide.

Sad but smiling? How the combination of happy victim images and sad message appeals increase prosocial behavior

The present research examines how a combination of a happy (vs. sad) victim image and a strong sad message appeal can promote prosocial behavior. The underlying reason is that consumers can more easily see how their help can positively change the victim’s situation (i.e., high levels of perceived outcome efficacy). This research tests these predictions across four experimental studies, involving volunteering behavior (study 1) and donation allocations (studies 2–4) across two different markets (Indonesia and the USA). We address the challenge charities face to represent the victims in a good light while at the same time showing their “need” to potential donors. These findings provide advice to marketers and consumers on how to develop effective charitable advertising strategies by combining a happy victim image and a strong sad message appeal.

The interactive effects of religiosity and recognition in increasing donation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine a three-way interaction between the two motivational orientations of religiosity (i.e. intrinsic and extrinsic) and recognition (in this study, an explicit expectation that behavior is recognized) on charitable behavior. Further, drawing upon the evolutionary psychology perspective, the status motive is predicted to mediate the predicted effects.Design/methodology/approachThree experimental studies were conducted using a 2 (intrinsic religiosity: low/high; measured) × 2 (extrinsic religiosity: low/high; measured) × 2 (recognition: yes/no; manipulated) between-subjects design to examine the predicted effects on likelihood to donate and donation allocations in two Asian countries, namely, Indonesia and Malaysia.FindingsThe results show that recognition increases charitable behavior among consumers with a high level of extrinsic religiosity but low level of intrinsic religiosity (Studies 1a, 1b and 2). Further, a status motive mediates the predicted effects (Study 2).Research limitations/implicationsThe present research provides a novel perspective on how marketers can purposively use recognition in charitable advertising to encourage charitable behavior among religious consumers – but only in Asia.Practical implicationsThis paper presents the case for how a non-profit organization can develop charitable advertising for disaster relief in Indonesia (Studies 1a and 1b) and Malaysia (Study 2). The findings of this research could potentially be extended to other organizations in Asia or other countries where religiosity places an important role in consumer behavior.Originality/valueThis research shows the interactive effect between extrinsic religiosity, intrinsic religiosity and recognition can increase charitable behavior in Asia.

The allure of starting afresh: the effects of mortality-related sadness on the effectiveness of fresh start appeals

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how mortality-related sadness, as compared to other emotions such as fear, anger and happiness, can leverage the effectiveness of fresh start appeals.Design/methodology/approachDrawing upon the consumption-based affect regulation principle, this paper investigates how sadness associated with mortality can elicit the appraisal of irretrievable loss, which subsequently increases the effectiveness of fresh start appeals. These predictions are tested across three experimental studies.FindingsFindings demonstrate that mortality-related sadness enhances donation allocations (Study 1), willingness to pay (Study 2) and favorable attitudes (Study 3) toward an advertisement promoted with a fresh start appeal. This effect is mediated by an appraisal of irretrievable loss (Studies 1–3). Moreover, the emotion’s effect only emerges among consumers who believe that their emotional experiences are stable (vs malleable) (Study 3).Research limitations/implicationsThis paper investigates the effects of negative (vs positive emotions). It would thus be of interest to explore whether different discrete positive emotions may also enhance favorable evaluations of fresh start appeals.Practical implicationsWhile fresh start appeals have been widely used by marketers and organizations, the extant literature in this area has yet to identify how marketers can leverage the effectiveness of such appeals. This paper highlights how a specific negative emotion can be beneficial to marketers in leveraging the effectiveness of fresh start appeals.Originality/valueThe findings of this research suggest a novel potential strategy for the regulation of sadness. Specifically, consumers experiencing mortality-related sadness show favorable evaluations of fresh start appeals, indicating they are seeking to dissociate themselves from the past.

Exploring the donation allocation of online charitable crowdfunding based on topical and spatial analysis: Evidence from the Tencent GongYi

Online charitable crowdfunding has become an increasingly popular approach for online fundraising and has attracted widespread concern in society. However, little is known about donation allocation in the implementation of online charitable crowdfunding, especially the purposes involved and the specific flows of these donations. To this end, this study aims to explore project initiators’ fundraising allocation by identifying latent intentions from a large sample of project descriptions and by uncovering spatial patterns in the flow of cross-regional donations. By collecting data from the Tencent GongYi platform, one of the largest government-authorized online crowdfunding platforms in China, we conducted a comparative analysis of four types of crowdfunding projects (i.e., medical, educational, poverty-related, and environmental) to examine differences in their general characteristics and donation allocation. The findings suggest that the success rates for these four different types of online charitable crowdfunding vary and that the key influencing factor among them is the type of project executors. Most of the donations are used to fund children and older adults, especially for neglected children in rural areas and neglected elders. In terms of the spatial analysis of the different categories of charitable crowdfunding projects, the results also reveal that the flow of online donations is not equitably distributed and tends to be concentrated in a few relatively developed regions. Specifically, eastern China, with a higher GDP, receives more donations than western China, with a lower GDP. Our research contributes to a better understanding of the donation allocation of online charitable crowdfunding and points to some general implications for online charitable crowdfunding research and practice globally.

Moral Foundations Theory and the Psychology of Charitable Giving

Moral foundations theory proposes that intuitions about what is morally right or wrong rest upon a set of universal foundations. Although this theory has generated a recent surge of research, few studies have investigated the real–world moral consequences of the postulated moral intuitions. We show that they are predictably associated with an important type of moral behaviour. Stronger individualizing intuitions (fairness and harm prevention) and weaker binding intuitions (loyalty, authority, and sanctity) were associated with the willingness to comply with a request to volunteer for charity and with the amount of self–reported donations to charity organizations. Among participants who complied with the request, individualizing intuitions predicted the allocation of donations to causes that benefit out–groups, whereas binding intuitions predicted the allocation of donations to causes that benefit the in–group. The associations between moral foundations and self–report measures of allocations in a hypothetical dilemma and concern with helping in–group and out–group victims were similar. Moral foundations predicted charitable giving over and above effects of political ideology, religiosity, and demographics, although variables within these categories also exhibited unique effects on charitable giving and accounted for a portion of the relationship between moral foundations and charitable giving. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley &amp; Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology

A smile – the key to everybody’s heart?

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how to improve the effectiveness of charitable advertising by matching emotional appeal (happy-faced vs sad-faced beneficiary) and message framing (recognition vs request) within advertising messages. Design/methodology/approach Two experiments examining real donation allocations were conducted. Study 1 established the “match-up” effect between advertising image and message. Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 as well as testing the mediating role of hope and sympathy. Findings The authors provide empirical evidence that consumers allocate a greater donation amount to a charity when they see an image of a sad-faced child combined with a request message (e.g. “please donate”), or an image of a happy-faced child combined with a recognition message (e.g. “thank you”). Notably, these effects are mediated by the emotions of hope and sympathy, respectively. Research limitations/implications This research highlights the importance of matching images of beneficiaries with the appropriate advertising copy. Depending on whether a charity seeks to position itself in a positive perspective to evoke hope, or alternatively, portray itself in relation to a sadder landscape that elicits sympathy, the respective choice of recognition or request messages can help boost donation outcomes. Practical implications Charities and non-profit organizations can develop more effective charitable advertising by purposively matching specific emotional appeals and message framings when designing advertisements. Originality/value The research illustrates a novel mechanism that shows when and how combining image and message can influence the effectiveness of charitable advertising.