Online fundraising, self-image, and the long-term impact of ask avoidance

Maja Adena and Steffen Huck

Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economics of Change from WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Abstract: We provide the first field evidence pointing at the role of pure self-image, inde-pendent of social image, in charitable giving. In an online fundraising campaign for a social youth project run on an opera ticket booking platform we document how individuals appear to engage in self-deception to preserve their self-image. In addition, we provide evidence on stark adverse long-run effects of the fund-raising campaign for ticket sales. “Avoiding the ask,” opera customers who faced more insistent online fundraising buy fewer tickets in the following season. Our results suggest that fundraising management should not decide in isolation about their campaigns, even if very successful. Rather broader operational concerns have to be considered.

Keywords: online fundraising; quasi-experiment; self-image (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D03 D12 D64 L31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018, Revised 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-mkt and nep-pay
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/183146/1/ii16-306r2.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Online Fundraising, Self-Image, and the Long-Term Impact of Ask Avoidance (2018)
Working Paper: Online fundraising, self-image, and the long-term impact of ask avoidance (2018)
Working Paper: Online fundraising, self-image, and the long-term impact of ask avoidance (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:wzbeoc:spii2016306r2

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