Interpersonal Fundraising Methods Are Associated With Lower Donation Value Over Time

Abstract

Charities have invited public scorn through their use of chugging (or “charity mugging”) methods of fundraising, which involve interpersonal interaction between fundraisers and potential donors. It is not known how such mass market interpersonal fundraising methods are associated with donors giving over time. We analyzed transactional data from a natural experiment involving 213,404 donors to 45 charities to examine the relationship between interpersonal interaction at the time of donor recruitment and the long-term value of donations made by those donors. Multilevel analyses show that different fundraising methods are associated with different donation values. Specifically, mass market fundraising methods that involve interpersonal interaction are linked to lower donation values over time (β = −.12; equating to 59% fewer dollars donated on average in the second year), driven by much higher rates of cancelation (odds ratio [OR] = 3.14). We theorize several possible mechanisms through which interpersonal fundraising comes to generate these poorer outcomes.