Do Thank-You Calls Increase Charitable Giving? Expert Forecasts and Field Experimental Evidence
中文摘要
致电感谢捐赠者被认为是慈善捐赠行业的一项关键筹款策略。然而，致谢电话的有效性仍未得到检验。我们与公共电视台及一家全国性非营利组织合作开展了实地实验，将500,000名新捐赠者随机分配接收致谢电话或不接收。筹款专业人士预测，遵循行业标准的致谢电话将使捐赠者留存率提高80%。与此形成鲜明对比的是，我们发现致谢电话对捐赠者留存率的效应为精确估计的零效应。 (JEL C83, C93, D64, D91, L31, L82)
Abstract
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 nonprofit 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 percent. In stark contrast, we found a precisely estimated null effect of calls on donor retention. (JEL C83, C93, D64, D91, L31, L82)