Payment versus charitable donations to attract agricultural and natural resource survey participation

Abstract

This analysis provides two case studies comparing direct payment versus charitable donations on respondents' behalf as survey participation incentives. The first examines agricultural producers' willingness to participate in several hypothetical surveys. Donation to charity significantly increases producers' willingness to participate relative to direct payment. The second case study examines forest landowners' willingness to participate in an actual, one-time survey. Neither payment nor donation incentives improve participation among mail respondents and donations are less effective versus payment among online respondents. If they do not decrease participation, then donations may be preferred, requiring less effort to process a smaller number of transactions.