Introduction
Charitable organisations in the U.S are facing increased competition that is forcing charities to invest more in advertising. However, donors perceive this advertising as diverting their contributions away from potential beneficiaries, which may lead to lower future donations and lower capacity of charities to deliver social programs for people in need. Nowadays, donors are under pressure themselves from managing workplace and achieving personal goals. This can result in ego depletion – a state where one’s self-control resources have been temporarily exhausted and could lead to less prosocial behaviour, for depleted people feel less guilt and less inclined to help others. Furthermore, donors are often exposed to multiple donation requests after having previously contributed due to the cost-effectiveness of reproaching a known donor compared to reaching a new one. Hence, donors may reduce subsequent donations after having donated once, supporting the studied notion that people are more likely to be selfish after a prosocial act.
This paper provides a means by which charities can increase the effectiveness of their donation appeals through examining the influencing effect of two message types: other-benefit and self-benefit messages. Self-benefit messages highlight the gains to the donor themselves, while other-benefit messages focus on the welfare of beneficiaries. Although previous research suggests that ego depletion harms charity donations because of the increased selfishness, this paper show that appealing to such selfishness can promote time donation intent and actual monetary donations.
Method and sample
Three studies compare the donors’ intent to volunteer their time (studies 1 and 2) and actual monetary donations (study 3) of depleted (vs. non-depleted) individuals who have been exposed to either a self-benefit message or an other-benefit message.
- Study 1 aims to test an interaction between ego depletion and message appeals on time donation intent. 225 college students from a major midwestern university in the U.S participated in an experiment conducted in a computer lab using ad stimuli, where each participant sat at a computer and was randomly assigned to one stimulus (out of four).
- Study 2 replicated and extended study 1 using a different charity organisation and an adult sample. The sample included 104 Americans from MTurk.
- Study 3 examined time-of-the-day effects: morning versus evening with regards to the two message appeals of self-benefit vs. other-benefit. Ad stimuli were used with these two different appeals but with identical content and visual elements. Participants were sent an email with the study link. A final sample of 220 participants were qualified for the analysis.
Key findings
- The results show that when people are depleted, self-benefit messages are more effective than other-benefit messages in generating charitable support. When people are not depleted, the opposite pattern is observed with other-benefit messages attracting more attention and support. In short, depleted individuals perceive self-benefit messages as more appealing than the other-benefit messages.
- In the evening, the self-benefit messages generated larger donations than the other-benefit messages. In the morning, the opposite pattern was observed with the other-benefit messages generating higher charitable support. The effect was consistent regardless of whether participants were asked for time or money.
Recommendations
- Charities can maximise donations by advertising other-benefit messages in the morning and then self-benefit messages in the evening, given that depletion occurs naturally over the course of the day. For example, organisations would push other-benefit messages in the morning and then switch to advertisements featuring a self-benefit message in the evening when people are likely exhausted from daily tasks. This approach is feasible in online contexts and may also be suitable for telephone or face-to-face campaigns.
- Organisations may want to adjust their appeal type based on the potential donor’s occupation. Individuals with occupations that require large amounts of self-regulation and pressure (e.g., frontline service providers) should be presented with advertising that appeals to their own self-interest compared to other workers with less requirement to control their emotions and efforts or less faced pressure.
Lead Researcher
More information
The research article is also available on eprints.