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Choosing to give more: experimental evidence on restricted gifts and charitable behaviour

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  • Sara E. Helms
  • Brian L. Scott
  • Jeremy P. Thornton

Abstract

It is common for charitable organizations to allow donors to place material restrictions on their gifts. Nonprofit firms and fundraisers generally believe that allowing gift restrictions will increase donation revenue. Restricted gifts are costly to the nonprofit firms because of increased management expenses and an inability to reallocate gifts to higher valued uses. We report the results of an experiment which tests the influence of charitable gift restrictions on donor behaviour. We find that allowing restricted gifts significantly increases the amount given in a laboratory setting. However, we find no evidence that grant restrictions increase the probability of giving.

Suggested Citation

  • Sara E. Helms & Brian L. Scott & Jeremy P. Thornton, 2012. "Choosing to give more: experimental evidence on restricted gifts and charitable behaviour," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(8), pages 745-748, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:19:y:2012:i:8:p:745-748
    DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2011.599784
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dean Karlan & John A. List, 2007. "Does Price Matter in Charitable Giving? Evidence from a Large-Scale Natural Field Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1774-1793, December.
    2. Julio Videras, 2005. "Luck and giving," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(15), pages 953-956.
    3. John A. List, 2011. "The Market for Charitable Giving," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(2), pages 157-180, Spring.
    4. Philip Grossman & Matthew Parrett, 2011. "Religion and prosocial behaviour: a field test," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(6), pages 523-526.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kristy Jones, 2017. "Paternalism and Ethnicity in Giving," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 93(302), pages 420-433, September.
    2. Lata Gangadharan & Philip J. Grossman & Kristy Jones, 2014. "Deconstructing Giving: Donor Types and How They Give," Monash Economics Working Papers 53-14, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    3. Gangadharan, Lata & Grossman, Philip J. & Jones, Kristy & Leister, C. Matthew, 2018. "Paternalistic giving: Restricting recipient choice," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 143-170.
    4. Sweeney, Rohan & Mortimer, Duncan & Johnston, David W., 2014. "Do Sector Wide Approaches for health aid delivery lead to ‘donor-flight’? A comparison of 46 low-income countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 38-46.

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