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Can tailored communications motivate volunteers? A field experiment

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  • Al-Ubaydli, Omar
  • Lee, Min

Abstract

Over 25% of the US population volunteers. Clary et al. (1998) devised a survey that identifies a volunteer’s primary motive for volunteering. We investigate the effect of tailoring the communications that volunteers receive from their organizations (e.g., printed newsletters, update emails) to each volunteer’s stated motive for volunteering affects volunteer performance. We find that in general, such tailoring has no effect, but that for volunteers who are motivated primarily by the pursuit of career-related benefits, such tailoring can have a substantial, positive effect on hours volunteered. We also find that the (in)effectiveness of this tailoring does not depend upon the volunteers’ knowledge of the tailoring. The tailoring of communications does not involve the explicit manipulation of material incentives. This renders it particularly attractive given the emergence of evidence on how extrinsic incentives can crowd out intrinsic incentives, especially in the domain of charitable contributions.

Suggested Citation

  • Al-Ubaydli, Omar & Lee, Min, 2011. "Can tailored communications motivate volunteers? A field experiment," MPRA Paper 30343, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:30343
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    Cited by:

    1. Julian Conrads & Bernd Irlenbusch & Tommaso Reggiani & Rainer Michael Rilke & Dirk Sliwka, 2016. "How to hire helpers? Evidence from a field experiment," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 19(3), pages 577-594, September.
    2. Dolan, Paul & Krekel, Christian & Shreedhar, Ganga & Lee, Helen & Marshall, Claire & Smith, Allison, 2021. "Happy to Help: The Welfare Effects of a Nationwide Micro-Volunteering Programme," IZA Discussion Papers 14431, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Yeomans, Michael & Al-Ubaydli, Omar, 2018. "How does fundraising affect volunteering? Evidence from a natural field experiment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 57-72.
    4. Erte Xiao & Daniel Houser, 2014. "Sign Me Up! A Model and Field Experiment on Volunteering," Working Papers 1043, George Mason University, Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science.
    5. Al-Ubaydli, Omar & Yeomans, Mike, 2017. "Do people donate more when they perceive a single beneficiary whom they know? A field experimental test of the identifiability effect," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 96-103.
    6. repec:rdg:wpaper:em-dp2012-03 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Al-Ubaydli, Omar & Yeomans, Mike, 2014. "Do people donate more when they perceive a single beneficiary whom they know? A field experimental test of the identifiability effect," MPRA Paper 55382, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Xiao, Erte & Houser, Daniel, 2022. "Sign me up! Promoting volunteering with a compound task mechanism," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 897-913.
    9. Olivier Body, 2014. "When Is Speech Silver and Silence Golden ?A Field Experiment on an Information Campaign," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2014-32, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    10. Lucas, Benjamin & Francu, R. Elena & Goulding, James & Harvey, John & Nica-Avram, Georgiana & Perrat, Bertrand, 2021. "A Note on Data-driven Actor-differentiation and SDGs 2 and 12: Insights from a Food-sharing App," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(6).
    11. Vanessa Mertins & Christian Walter, 2021. "In absence of money: a field experiment on volunteer work motivation," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 24(3), pages 952-984, September.
    12. Marina Della Giusta & Sarah Jewell & Rachel McCloy, 2012. "Good Enough? Pro-environmental Behaviors, Climate Change and Licensing," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2012-03, Department of Economics, University of Reading.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    volunteering; charitable contributions; priming; stereotype;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship

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