Relational Altruism and Giving in Social Groups

Kimberley Scharf and Sarah Smith

No 11333, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Much fundraising is done by individuals within existing social groups. Exploiting a unique dataset, we demonstrate (i) a positive relationship between social group size and the number of donations; (ii) a negative relationship between group size and the size of individual donations; (iii) no clear relationship between group size and the total amount raised. Free riding with respect to the activity being funded cannot explain the relationship between group size and donation size, 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 altruism†.

Keywords: Online giving; Social groups; Charity; Fundraising; Donations; altruism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D64 H31 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-exp, nep-ltv and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Relational altruism and giving in social groups (2016)
Working Paper: Relational Altruism and Giving in Social Groups (2016)
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