Seeing them Suffer: Emotions vs Efficiency in Fundraising Appeals

• In Event: Growing Gifts for Good: Examining Fundraising in the Nonprofit Sector

Abstract

Our research seeks to understand how a blend of efficiency information and emotionally evocative imagery impact donor behavior. While the impact of singular pieces of information on donation decisions is well-documented, there is a gap in the literature regarding the simultaneous effect of multiple information types. We consider these two types of information especially interesting since there is evidence suggesting that both are useful in moderation but can lead to harmful consequences. Fundraising appeals often cite overhead statistics and ratings from third party watchdogs to indicate that the organizations are responsible with money, while also using emotional imagery, sometimes to the point of exploitative “poverty porn,” to inspire donors to contribute to end the suffering. Given that real-world charity fundraising often combines appeals to both efficiency and emotion, our study aims to test their interaction. We employ a 2x2 experimental design varying overhead information and emotional appeals to donors, closely mimicking actual donation solicitations.  We test this research question through two sets of experiments – a laboratory experiment run at Georgia State University, along with a nationally representative sample survey through CloudResearch’s Connect platform. Our experiment at Georgia State University allows us to analyze how Generation Z (Gen Z) reacts to common philanthropic marketing techniques of including financial efficiency information, along with emotionally charged imagery. Conversely, the Connect experiment allows us to compare how our results in the lab apply to the current American populous. Our research has been funded through a “Levis Grant” with the Association for Fundraising Professionals and has been approved by both GSU UT Dallas’s IRB. We are scheduled to run the experiment on Connect in Summer 2025, and in GSU’s ExCEN laboratory in Fall 2025 prior to the APPAM conference.

Author

• Jonathan Oxley, Georgia State University
  Presenting Author