The Effects of Seed Money and Refunds on Charitable Giving: Experimental Evidence from a University Capital Campaign
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- 1 February 2002
- journal article
- Published by University of Chicago Press in Journal of Political Economy
- Vol. 110 (1) , 215-233
- https://doi.org/10.1086/324392
Abstract
We design a field experiment to test two theories of fundraising for threshold public goods: Andreoni (1998) predicts that publicly announced "seed money" will increase charitable donations, while Bagnoli and Lipman (1989) predict a similar increase for a refund policy. Experimentally manipulating a solicitation of 3000 households for a university capital campaign produced data confirming both predictions. Increasing seed money from 10% to 67% of the campaign goal produced a nearly sixfold increase in contributions , with significant effects on both participation rates and average gift size. Imposing a refund increased contributions by a more modest 20%, with significant effects on average gift size.Keywords
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