Do Thank-You Calls Increase Charitable Giving? Expert Forecasts and Field Experimental Evidence

Anya Samek and Chuck Longfield

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2023, vol. 15, issue 2, 103-24

Abstract: Calling to thank donors is considered a key fundraising strategy in the charitable giving industry. Yet the effectiveness of thank-you calls remains untested. We conduct field experiments with public television stations and a national nonprofit in which 500,000 new donors were randomized to receive a thank-you call or not. Fundraising professionals predicted that the calls—which followed standard practices in the industry—would increase donor retention by 80 percent. In stark contrast, we found a precisely estimated null effect of calls on donor retention.

JEL-codes: C83 C93 D64 D91 L31 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1257/app.20210068

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