How to design the ask?: Funding units vs. giving money
Charities frequently deviate from the standard donation scheme in which potential donors are asked how much money they are willing to give. Instead, they ask donors to choose how many units of a charitable good (e.g. meals, bed nets, or trees) to fund at a given unit price. In an online donation exp...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Book/Monograph Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Heidelberg
Heidelberg University, Department of Economics
January 18, 2021
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| Edition: | This version: January 18, 2021 |
| Series: | AWI discussion paper series
no. 698 (January 2021) |
| In: |
AWI discussion paper series (no. 698 (January 2021))
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| DOI: | 10.11588/heidok.00029344 |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Verlag, kostenfrei: http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/29344/1/Diederich_Epperson_Goeschl_2021_dp698.pdf Resolving-System, kostenfrei: https://doi.org/10.11588/heidok.00029344 Resolving-System, kostenfrei: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/235021 Resolving-System: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-293447 Langzeitarchivierung Nationalbibliothek: https://d-nb.info/122617714X/34 Verlag, kostenfrei: http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/archiv/29344 
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| Author Notes: | Johannes Diederich, Raphael Epperson, Timo Goeschl |
| Summary: | Charities frequently deviate from the standard donation scheme in which potential donors are asked how much money they are willing to give. Instead, they ask donors to choose how many units of a charitable good (e.g. meals, bed nets, or trees) to fund at a given unit price. In an online donation experiment, we compare the performance of such a "unit donation" scheme with that of the standard "money donation" and investigate the factors that could explain differences. We find that despite the additional demands that it imposes on the charity, the unit donation does not outperform the money donation scheme in terms of overall donations. It significantly differs, however, with respect to the propensity to give. The sign of the difference depends on the granularity of the scheme. When one unit of the charitable good is cheap, unit donation schemes increase the propensity to give and can serve as an effective tool for recruiting donors. |
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| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| DOI: | 10.11588/heidok.00029344 |