Do Charitable Solicitations Matter? A Comparative Analysis of Fundraising Methods

The existing literature either treats fundraising as an aggregate variable by ignoring the existence of several different fundraising methods through which charitable contributions are generated or focuses on the effectiveness of a particular fundraising method without making any comparison with alternative methods. Using biennial household surveys of charitable giving in the United States conducted from 1988 to 1999, which contain detailed questions on several fundraising methods, I first document that people are more responsive to certain fundraising methods. Next, I investigate the factors associated with donors' responsiveness to alternative fundraising techniques. The results show that several observable characteristics of charitable donors are associated with some people being more responsive to particular fundraising techniques than others are.