It’s me again… Ask Avoidance and the Dynamics of Charitable Giving

Maximilian Späth ()
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Maximilian Späth: University of Potsdam

No 38, CEPA Discussion Papers from Center for Economic Policy Analysis

Abstract: Charities typically ask potential donors repeatedly for a donation. These repeated requests might trigger avoidance behavior. Considering that, this paper analyzes the impact of offering an ask avoidance option on charitable giving. In a proposed utility framework, the avoidance option decreases the social pressure to donate. At the same time, it induces feelings of gratitude toward the fundraiser, which may lead to a reciprocal increase in donations. The results of a lab experiment designed to disentangle the two channels show no negative impact of the option to avoid repeated asking on donations. Instead, the full model indicates a positive impact of the reciprocity channel. This finding suggests that it might be beneficial for charities to introduce an ask avoidance option during high-frequency fundraising campaigns.

Keywords: Charitable giving; Repeated request; Ask avoidance; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C73 C91 D64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pot:cepadp:38

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