Growing Gifts for Good: Examining Fundraising in the Nonprofit Sector

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Charitable giving surpassed $557 billion in the United States in 2023 (Osili and Han 2025; Giving USA, 2025), and may become even more important in the near future with decreasing federal support for non-profits and public goods.  As a result of a decades-long process of decentralizing government to third party contractors and public-private partnerships the public and nonprofit sectors have become deeply intertwined (Urban Institute 2025). As a result, current cuts to federal funding are reverberating through the charitable sector and diminishing the capacity to partner with public agencies. As a result, mobilizing resources from non-government sources is an increasingly important topic.

This panel explores donor behavior across several dimensions. The first two papers use experimental evidence to directly test how donors respond to incentives to donate.  In an online laboratory experiment, Amelia Ahles, Joanna Lahey, and Marco Palma demonstrate that non-profits can increase donations by combining the excitement of lotteries with matching donations.  Participants donate more to food charities when they are given a low probability of a high match compared to no match, and with the lottery match, they donate the same amount compared to a more expensive (to the charity) standard 1:1 match.  Jonathan Oxley and Elizabeth A. M. Searing use a 2x2 experimental design varying overhead information and emotional appeals to donors in the laboratory and in an online panel to explore how donors weigh efficiency vs. emotion in their donations.

Teresa D. Harrison and Jennifer Mayo also look at the effects of information on charitable giving, but using field data from a natural experiment.  They leverage the rollout of Charity Navigator’s new Encompass Rating System and find that donors ignore more nuanced information on a charity’s operations but do pay attention to impact and effectiveness during high donation times such as GivingTuesday.  Finally, Jesse D. Lecy creates a charitable support index that measures the degree of generosity, cumulative foundation resources, and other philanthropic capital that nonprofits can access in local environments. 

Combined, our panel represents a diverse set of research questions, methodologies, and outcomes that have direct takeaways that nonprofit practitioners can employ in order to increase their fundraising.

Policy Area

• Public and Nonprofit Management and Finance

Chair

• Scott J Barkowski, University at Buffalo

Discussants

• Mary Kay Gugerty, University of Washington

• Scott J Barkowski, University at Buffalo

Organizer

• Joanna Lahey, Texas A&M University

Individual Presentations

• Jackpot for Good: Can Lottery Matches Increase Charitable Giving? - Presenting Author: Joanna Lahey, Texas A&M University

• Seeing them Suffer: Emotions vs Efficiency in Fundraising Appeals - Presenting Author: Jonathan Oxley, Georgia State University

• Information in the Nonprofit Sector: What do Donors Value? - Presenting Author: Teresa D Harrison, Drexel University

• Surviving the Riptide: The Role of Macro Resource Environments in Nonprofit Sustainability - Presenting Author: Jesse Lecy, Arizona State University