Replication Data and Code for: "Do Thank-You Calls Increase Charitable Giving? Expert Forecasts and Field Experimental Evidence"

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Anya Samek, University of California-San Diego; Chuck Longfield, Blackbaud, Inc

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
thank_you_replication			03/07/2022 06:21:PM
ReadMe.pdf	application/pdf	232.4 KB	03/07/2022 01:19:PM

Project Citation:

Samek, Anya, and Longfield, Chuck. Replication Data and Code for: “Do Thank-You Calls Increase Charitable Giving? Expert Forecasts and Field Experimental Evidence.” Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2023. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-03-09. https://doi.org/10.3886/E149481V1

Project Description

Summary: Calling to thank donors is considered a key fundraising strategy in the charitable giving industry. Yet the effectiveness of thank-you calls remains untested. We conduct field experiments with public television stations and a national non-profit in which 500,000 new donors were randomized to receive a thank-you call or not. Fundraising professionals predicted that the calls - which followed standard practices in the industry - would increase donor retention by 80\%. In stark contrast, we found a precisely estimated null effect of calls on donor retention.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      C93 Field Experiments
      D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
      H41 Public Goods

Time Period(s): 2011 – 2016; 2018 – 2019

Data Type(s): experimental data; survey data

Methodology

Unit(s) of Observation: Individuals

Related Publications

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Published Versions

V1 [2023-03-09]

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DDI 2.5

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