Relational Warm Glow and Giving in Social Groups

Sarah Smith and Kimberley Scharf

The Centre for Market and Public Organisation from The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK

Abstract: We study charitable giving within social groups. Exploiting a unique dataset, we establish three key relationships between social group size and fundraising outcomes: (i) a positive relationship between group size and the total number of donations; (ii) a negative relationship between group size and the amount given by each donor; (iii) no relationship between group size and the total amount raised by the fundraiser. We rule out classic free-riding to explain these relationships since the number of social group members is only a subset of total contributors. Instead, the findings are consistent with the notion that giving in social groups is motivated by “relational” warm glow.

Keywords: Online giving; Fundraising; Social groups; Donations; Charity; Warm glow (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D64 H31 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2014-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Relational Warm Glow and Giving in Social Groups (2014)
Working Paper: Relational Warm Glow and Giving in Social Groups (2014)
Working Paper: Relational Warm Glow and Giving in Social Groups (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bri:cmpowp:14/327

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