Donation Solicitation Research Articles

Emergency medical supply planning considering prepositioning and dynamic in-kind donation management in healthcare coalitions.

This study tackles an integrated emergency medical supply planning problem, which incorporates supply prepositioning and dynamic in-kind donation management in healthcare coalitions. Although this problem is vital for field practice, it is not investigated in the existing emergency supply planning literature. To fill the gap, we propose a two-stage stochastic programming model, which facilitates the planning of emergency medical supply prepositioning before disasters and dynamic supply transshipment and in-kind donation solicitation and distribution after disasters. With a case study on the healthcare coalition of West China Hospital in Sichuan Province of China under the background of the COVID-19 epidemic, the proposed model and seven comparison models are optimally solved to show the effectiveness and benefits of our model. We conduct sensitivity analysis to generate managerial insights and policy suggestions for better emergency medical supply management practices in healthcarecoalitions.

Teaching replication through replication to solve the replication “crisis”

It may be possible to teach students in undergraduate research methods courses about replication, while simultaneously providing the discipline a means to solve what some have called a replication “crisis.” Over the span of three consecutive fall semesters, students replicated Cialdini and Schroeder’s “even a penny will help” (EPH) donation solicitation experiment. A meta-analysis of the three semesters supports the original study’s finding: a larger percentage donated in the EPH condition. However, it does not find support for no differences in contribution size; instead, the standard request generated greater donation amounts. Recommendations for utilizing methods courses for increasing replication attempts are discussed.

Identifying and addressing fundraising's overarching ethical questions through ethical theory

AbstractPurposeThis paper seeks to build on MacQuilllin and Sargeant's (2019) framework for normative fundraising ethics by considering how fundraising professionals might use these theories to support their fundraising practice. In the paper we will seek to identify the higher‐level ethical questions that underpin the majority of ethical decisions fundraisers will need to make: decisions around the acceptance and solicitation of donations and we will then seek to address each of these questions through the lens of MacQuilllin and Sargeant's (2019) normative ethical theories.Approach and methodologyWe will abstract from common ethical dilemmas the higher‐level or overarching questions that can encompass them. We will then consider each question through the lens of the normative theories developed by MacQuillin and Sargeant (2019), drawing on available evidence to support our arguments.FindingsTwo core questions were identified:1. Where are the lines in who we approach for/receive resources from for our organisation?2. Where are the lines in how we approach people for resources for our organisation?OriginalityTo our knowledge, this will be the first academic paper that a) identifies the overarching ethical questions that affect fundraising practice, and b) applies the various normative theories of fundraising ethics directly to them. In practical terms, it may also be particularly useful to fundraising practitioners who want to explore the theories of ethics in relation to the dilemmas they encounter in practice.

Narrative Themes in Grateful Patient Fundraising.

In this commentary article, I will identify and examine a variety of themes that arise in narratives written by 12 physician authors that detail their experiences with grateful patient fundraising. Grateful patient fundraising serves an important role in health care philanthropy. Donations by grateful patients offer practical benefits to society and altruistic giving can personally benefit donors and family members; however, solicitation of donations by physicians raises a number of legal and ethical issues including, concerns about equity and health information confidentiality. To prevent eroding or distorting the physician-patient relationship, physicians involved in grateful patient fundraising must adhere to ethical guidelines and recommendations.

Do Promotions Make Consumers More Generous? The Impact of Price Promotions on Consumers’ Donation Behavior

Despite growing concerns regarding the increasing consumerism related to promotions, this research documents a positive effect of price promotions on consumers’ donation behavior. Specifically, the authors propose that price promotions increase consumers’ perceived resources, which in turn increase consumers’ donation behavior. A series of seven studies, combining field and experimental data, provide converging support for this proposition and its underlying mechanism of perceived resources. Furthermore, the authors show that the positive effect of price promotions on consumers’ donation behavior is attenuated when consumers focus on the amount of money spent (rather than saved), when consumers feel they have overspent their budget, and when the monetary savings cannot be realized immediately. Finally, the authors show that this effect is stronger when donation solicitation occurs immediately after the price promotion (vs. after a delay). This research documents a novel behavioral consequence of price promotions and uncovers a mechanism by which price promotions can lead to positive social consequences and contribute to a better world.

Exalted Purchases or Tainted Donations? Self‐signaling and the Evaluation of Charitable Incentives

It is common for charities to bundle donation requests with some type of product, such as a tote bag, pen, or coffee mug. The current studies find that people are more likely to donate when those bundles are framed as “charitable purchases” vs. “donations with a gift.” We show that this effect arises because consumers want to avoid the negative self‐signal associated with receiving a gift in exchange for donating. Five experiments provide evidence for the role of self‐signaling, identify key moderators of the framing effect, and demonstrate the downstream consequences for people's likelihood of donating in the future. More broadly, the current studies lend further evidence to the role of self‐signaling in charitable giving and provide greater clarity regarding how and when different donation solicitation techniques may be most effective.

Moral licensing and moral cleansing applied to company-NGO collaborations in an online context

In this paper, we focus on a specific aspect of monetary value creation in CSR activities, namely, company–NGO collaborations in the solicitation of donations. During a customer's journey through an online retail environment, companies can control their presentation of options to donate to an NGO partner before or after the purchase of their products. We investigate how the sequence of purchase and donation requests influences the amount donated to an NGO and the potential revenues for a company. We apply two cognitive biases—moral licensing and moral cleansing—as theoretical bases. Prior research on moral licensing and moral cleansing frequently neglects ecological validity. Our research attempts to address this issue by applying experimental settings which increase the transferability of results into practical measures. The paper provides marketing managers with the opportunity to understand which sequence of donation and purchase options is the most suitable for their purpose.

Using Large-Scale Social Media Experiments in Public Administration: Assessing Charitable Consequences of Government Funding of Nonprofits

Abstract In this article, we introduce and showcase how social media can be used to implement experiments in public administration research. To do so, we pre-registered a placebo-controlled field experiment and implemented it on the social media platform Facebook. The purpose of the experiment was to examine whether government funding to nonprofit organizations has an effect on charitable donations. Theories on the interaction between government funding and charitable donations stipulate that government funding of nonprofit organizations either decreases (crowding-out), or increases (crowding-in) private donations. To test these competing theoretical predictions, we used Facebook’s advertisement facilities and implemented an online field experiment among 296,121 Facebook users nested in 600 clusters. Through the process of cluster-randomization, groups of Facebook users were randomly assigned to different nonprofit donation solicitation ads, experimentally manipulating information cues of nonprofit funding. Contrary to theoretical predictions, we find that government funding does not seem to matter; providing information about government support to nonprofit organizations neither increases nor decreases people’s propensity to donate. We discuss the implications of our empirical application, as well as the merits of using social media to conduct experiments in public administration more generally. Finally, we outline a research agenda of how social media can be used to implement public administration experiments.

Toward an Optimal Donation Solicitation: Evidence from the Field of the Differential Influence of Donor-Related and Organization-Related Information on Donation Choice and Amount

The present research decomposes consumer donation behavior into two components: donation choice (i.e., whether to donate) and donation amount (i.e., how much to donate). It then considers how information related to the donor and information related to characteristics of the soliciting organization may differentially influence the two decisions. Results from four field experiments suggest that donor-related appeals have a greater effect on the donation choice decision (vs. organization-related appeals), whereas organization-related appeals have a greater effect on the donation amount decision (vs. donor-related appeals). This might lead one to conclude that presenting both types of appeals in a solicitation is ideal. However, the studies presented herein also suggest that this strategy may backfire. The simultaneous presentation of donor- and organization-related appeals can hamper both donation response rates and average contribution amounts. To address this issue, the authors identify and test an alternative solicitation strategy for maximizing solicitation effectiveness. This strategy involves a multistep request process that capitalizes on an understanding of the differential influence of donor- and organization-related information on donation choice and amount decisions.

Field study of charitable giving reveals that reciprocity decays over time

We examine how reciprocity changes over time by studying a large quasiexperiment in the field. Specifically, we analyze administrative data from a university hospital system. The data include information about over 18,000 donation requests made by the hospital system via mail to a set of its former patients in the 4 months after their first hospital visit. We exploit quasiexperimental variation in the timing of solicitation mailings relative to patient hospital visits and find that an extra 30-day delay between the provision of medical care and a donation solicitation decreases the likelihood of a donation by 30%. Our findings have important implications for models of economic behavior, which currently fail to incorporate reciprocity's sensitivity to time. The fact that reciprocal behavior decays rapidly as time passes also suggests the importance of capitalizing quickly on opportunities to benefit from a quid pro quo.

Analyzing scientists' donations to measure their values for the Nutrient Network (NutNet)

This paper reports on a real money, economic experiment in which a broad group of ecological scientists were challenged to consider their own values within an economic framework, by considering whether to contribute financially (i.e., to donate) to support a global research initiative designed to investigate the implications of global change for grassland ecosystems. We use this experiment to illustrate the basic approach of economics as might apply to choices about and individual values for ecosystem services, particularly using an application to the potential to enhance scientific knowledge regarding grassland responses to the global distribution of nutrients. While scientists' choices and values were not significantly influenced by economic incentives embedded in the donation solicitation, donations were significantly associated with ecologists' specializations and career stages.

Examining the role of social media in California’s drought risk management in 2014

Social media creates an interactive information communication platform for disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. Recent research has analyzed the participation of social media in natural disasters, such as the Haiti Earthquake in 2010, Queensland floods from 2010 to 2011, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and Colorado flood in 2013, but little research has paid attention to drought risk management. In this study, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis method is used to evaluate the social media sites of governmental agencies that were directly involved in California’s Drought Task Force in the historic drought in 2014. The results show that state governmental agencies have used the popular social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter) as communication channels with professional stakeholders and the general public. The major functions of social media in the California drought risk management process included one-way information sharing, two-way information sharing, situational awareness, rumor control, reconnection, and decision making. However, social media was not active in donation solicitation and volunteer management. The two-way communication still stayed in relatively surficial levels with limited comments and inadequate conversations. A gap existed to reconnect public social media domain and personal social networks, even though drought risk was closely related to everyone’s daily life. During the California drought in 2014, Facebook worked actively in two-way information sharing for drought risk information and water conservation strategies; YouTube was a robust platform that attracted large number of views on drought videos; and Twitter played an effective role in reconnection of social networks to expedite drought risk information dissemination.

The Positive Effect of the Mere Presence of a Religious Symbol on Compliance With an Organ Donation Request

Identifying low-cost, effective methods to influence behavior is of keen interest to social marketers and others striving to bring about social change. Research on material primes (an object or a word present in the individual’s environment) has received little interest from scientists. This field study conducted in France examined whether the presence of a religious symbol could influence the number of individuals who accepted an organ donation card. The study, conducted with 200 males and 200 females, examined the effect of the presence versus the absence of a Christian cross worn by a solicitor on participant’s compliance to an organ donation request. The findings showed that participants exposed to a Christian cross worn by a solicitor complied more favorably with the request addressed by the solicitor. This effect was found among both male and female participants. The presence of the Christian cross could have acted as a prime that led in turn to the activation of further concepts associated with religion such as compassion, support or solidarity, which in turn led participants to accept the organ donation solicitation more favorably.

Effect of Caring for Potential Brain Death Organ Donors during the Organ Donation Process upon Physician Attitudes

Background: The purpose of this study was to identify the attitude of physicians stemming from their experiences of caring for potential brain death donors during the organ donation process. Methods: Grounded theory methodology was used for this study. In depth interviews were conducted with six physicians who had experience of management of potential brain death donors. Data collection was done from January to October 2011. Theoretical sampling was used until the data reached saturation. Results: As a result of the analysis, dilemma of organ donation solicitation was identified as the core category. Twelve subcategories were identified and they were integrated to the core category. Obtaining organ donation counseling skills was identified as the consequence. Conclusions: The results of the study will provide a frame for understanding the attitudes stemming from their experience of caring for potential brain death donor and helping the development of effective intervention strategies for increasing organ donation.

Young Alumni Donations to a Selective Liberal Arts College: Who Gives?

We examine the factors behind young alumni donations to a selective liberal arts college. Coming from a wealthier background and having less financial need increases giving, but there is no definitive pattern to the effect of differing financial aid on giving. Alumni who majored in economics or government, studied abroad, were 4-year athletes, were members of the Greek system, or had higher GPA’s, contribute more. Students with closer connections to the institution as alumni (living closer, marrying a fellow alum, or through employment) are larger contributors. International and minority American graduates donate less. Giving is higher in key reunion years. A better academic ranking or higher endowment per student leads to lower giving, while athletic team success has little effect. These findings can assist college administrators in their solicitation of donations from alumni and in determination of which programs to protect or enhance during times of budget cutbacks.

Hi terrorist financing and the Internet: dot com danger

This article provides both an overview and a critique of international counter-terrorist financing measures since 11 September 2001 and their application to tracking terrorist finances generated and channelled via the Internet. Three separate jurisdictions will be studied and compared: the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Nations. In particular, the author examines the effectiveness and appropriateness of certain pieces of international guidance and national counter-terrorist financing legislation, as well as their application and interpretation by governments, courts and law enforcement authorities. By assessing the three main ways of generating terrorist finances via the Internet – direct solicitation of donations, using legitimate sources as a front and cybercrime – the author aims to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each jurisdiction.

Regulation of US Charitable Solicitations Since 1954

A major shift in the climate for the solicitation of charitable donations in the United States occurred in the second half of the twentieth century. Starting with legislation passed by the Legislatures of New York and Massachusetts in 1954 and eventually including 40 largely similar laws in force today, state governments grew to playing a predominant part in the regulation of appeals for public support for charitable activities. State regulators, voluntary oversight and advocacy groups, accounting standards-setting bodies, and the data-collection activities of the Internal Revenue Service all influenced the development of the body of regulations which now shape the process of seeking support for nonprofits’ work. This article summarizes the effect of earlier innovations in the field of fundraising and then examines the interplay of public and private actors in the course of the creation of the present regulatory climate.

Collectors behaving ethically: an emerging consumption constellation

PurposeThis study aims to examine the characteristics of ethnographic textile collectors and compare them with the literature regarding fair trade consumers to explore the existence of a possible consumption constellation between collecting and fair trade purchasing.Design/methodology/approachPurposive sampling was used for the study as it maximized the attainment of significant information related to ethnographic textile collecting. Qualitative data from ethnographic textile collectors (n=12) were collected.FindingsResults suggested that collectors were interested in purchasing high quality, authentic products that expressed their identity and individuality. These are similarities shared with fair trade consumers. Furthermore, collectors' motives to help artisans overcome poverty were evident; a similar value guides fair trade purchasing.Research limitations/implicationsThe predominantly female sample of academics may not be representative of the average ethnographic textile collector.Practical implicationsUnderstanding the multiplicity of products and activities representative of one consumer group's lifestyle is beneficial to both for‐profit and non‐profit organizations in terms of product promotion or donation solicitation. The understanding of these consumers' lifestyle can, in turn, help marketers design and implement effective advertising and fundraising campaigns that improve the livelihood and wellbeing of excluded and disadvantaged people in developing countries.Originality/valueThe paper furthers the knowledge base and understanding of these different consumer segments by providing evidence of a consumption constellation between ethnographic textile collectors and fair trade consumers.

Dialling for donations: practices and actions in the telephone solicitation of human tissues

Altruistic actions such as the donation of public goods have long been the subject of social scientific debate. While scholars have recognised the importance of analysing the solicitation of donated goods such as human organs and tissues, to date none has examined actual interaction for this fateful event as it unfolds in real time. In this paper, we use data from 186 audio-recorded telephone interactions between donation centre personnel and family members of the recently deceased along with in-depth interviews and observations conducted in the call centre, to examine this particular donation solicitation interaction. Using conversation analysis, we demonstrate the step-by-step sequencing of the interaction that begins with the ringing phone generated by the call centre personnel which eventually leads to the formulation of the reason for the call, the tacit donation solicitation. Our close analysis of the sequential organisation of this interaction shows how solicitation is done cautiously, incrementally, and tacitly rather than overtly, reflecting its status as a dispreferred action. This analysis suggests that configurations in the wording of solicitations may operate interactionally but inadvertently to discourage the act of donation that call centre personnel are attempting to elicit.

The Threat of Political Phishing

Internet based donations to political candidates are now a vital part of any successful campaign. Tens of millions of dollars are raised online each year, primarily in sub one hundred dollar amounts from individuals around the country. Politicians have exempted their own campaign donation solicitation emails from federal anti-spam legislation, and their campaigns encourage risky behavior by teaching users that it is OK to click the 'donate' button on an unsolicited email that arrives from a candidate. While not yet a major problem, fraudulent websites that masquerade as genuine campaign sites aiming to defraud donors are a significant threat on the not-so-distant horizon. These political phishing sites are easy to create, and extremely difficult for users to detect as not authentic. In this paper, we discuss threats against online campaign donation systems, and the unique factors which make this type of online commerce particularly vulnerable to fraud based attacks. We explore the threat that phishing attacks utilizing typo squatting and cousin domain names could pose to the 2008 presidential election. Finally, we propose a realistic and cost-effective solution to the problem.