IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejapp/v15y2023i2p103-24.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Anya Samek
  • Chuck Longfield

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Anya Samek & Chuck Longfield, 2023. "Do Thank-You Calls Increase Charitable Giving? Expert Forecasts and Field Experimental Evidence," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 103-124, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:15:y:2023:i:2:p:103-24
    DOI: 10.1257/app.20210068
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210068
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E149481V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210068.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210068.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/app.20210068?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:15:y:2023:i:2:p:103-24. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.