Volunteer Nicolle Eagan plays the violin for dogs being cared for at the ASPCA animal recovery center, Friday, April 21, 2023, in New York. Many nonprofits use images of suffering and need to motivate people to give, but a recent study from economists found there may be other effective strategies for prompting acts of generosity. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
Those ads showing caged dogs and desperate looking cats while Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan's “Angel” played in the background have been not just effective at making viewers sad, but also remarkably successful at raising money for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals since 2007.
However, a new study shows other strategies may also be effective at motivating people to give, apart from all that “ sadvertising.” Maybe try “Hakuna Matata.”
The study from Nathan Chan, assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Casey Wichman, assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, found that people in good moods are more likely to donate to a charitable cause.
The study gathered posts made to Twitter, the social media platform now called X, from people who gave to Wikipedia and posted a hashtag acknowledging the donation. The researchers analyzed the posts from before and after the users made a donation and found that it improved shortly before they gave.
“It suggests that rather than this conventional notion that people give because it makes them feel good about themselves for doing the right thing, we found that people were in a good mood prior to donating, and that’s potentially the causal factor for why they decided to give," Wichman said.
The findings indicate charities may want to improve a potential donor's mood before making the ask, Wichman said.
Their study isn't the first to find a connection between well-being and generosity, said Lara Aknin, professor of social psychology at Simon Fraser University, but it does a provide a valuable look at a person's specific feeling at a specific moment in a real world example. One takeaway could be that it would be beneficial to reach people at times when they are already feeling good, like on holidays or a loved one's birthday, she said.
But people give for many reasons and many levers motivate that generosity, Aknin said, including showing how a potential donor can make a meaningful impact on other people, animals or causes they care about. She also warned that people are very attuned to ulterior motives attached to requests for help.
“If people feel that they’re insincerely being fattened up before the request, then that could that could really spoil giving,” she said, “which I think for many people is truly a pretty wonderful experience when they get to give in ways that they care about and feel like they’ve chosen to do so.”
The researchers used natural language processing tools to analyze the sentiments of a person's tweets and identify their mood based on their posts.
They also designed a second experiment to test their findings where they asked online volunteers to decide how to split $50 between themselves and a charity. They showed some a clip of “Hakuna Matata” from from “The Lion King,” while others watched a science video about microbes. Those who watched the dancing warthog gave a little more to charity and were more likely to give the whole amount, though the results are less conclusive because of a small sample size.
While nonprofits always want to attract additional donations, many feel a particularly acute need right now. Human service, arts and educational organizations among others were profoundly stretched and stressed by the pandemic. Many continue to report increased demand for their services at the same time, economic conditions like inflation and major declines in the stock market impacted philanthropic giving. Last year, the overall amount of donations dropped for only the fourth time in four decades, according to Giving USA.
The trend also continued of fewer donors giving more, and so Michael Thatcher, CEO of Charity Navigator, encouraged nonprofits to experiment carefully and keeping true to an organization's mission.
"I think we need to be trying new things right now because there is donor fatigue," he said. But also, he added, “Don't try every new fad.”
For black history month, Cheddar is highlighting black business leaders who are driving the need for representation forward. On February 10, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hosted an event called 'Developing the Black-Owned Business Ecosystem.' The virtual event was organized under the lobbying group's two initiatives -- the Equality of Opportunity Initiative, and the Coalition to Back Black Businesses. The event highlighted the developments needed to develop more black-owned businesses in the U.S. Dr. Anthony Wilbon, Dean of the School of Business at Howard University, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss his experience as a speaker at the event.
While Black History Month is a time to celebrate the achievements of Black Americans, it's also a time to reflect on how they can be better heard and supported.
Black Americans are still fighting for voting rights, facing more severe impacts from COVID-19, and experiencing gaps in workforce representation and pay. Alexandra Schrecengost, hybrid work expert and CEO of "Virtual With Us" and "Culture With Us,' joined Cheddar News to discuss.
Premio Lo Nuestro 2022 is kicking off awards season this month with its 34th show. The star-studded event will include performances from Pitbull, Luis Fonsi — and even Sting with his new Spanish-language single "Por Su Amor." Ignacio Meyer, the vice president of music and non-scripted entertainment, Univision, joined Cheddar News to talk about the music award show details. "We’ve actually still got plenty of surprises that were going to be announcing," Meyer said. "We're not done announcing the star power just yet." Singer Camilo leads with 10 nominations going into the event.
Black spending power reached a record $1.6 Trillion in a 2021 report from the University of Georgia Selig Center for Economic Growth. Ayesha Selden, certified financial planner, breaks down why real estate is the key to closing the racial wealth gap and how Black Americans are using social media to improve financial literacy. "If we look at home ownership as being a primary driver of wealth, when you look at the equity that Americans have in their homes, that equity can be used to buy additional assets like other rental properties. That equity can be used to educate our children," Selden said, noting that lower rates of home ownership meant Black Americans tend to incur more debt on average for their student loans.
On this episode of Cheddar Reveals, Dr. Kate Strasdin, fashion historian & senior lecturer in Cultural Studies at Falmouth University, discusses the lessons industry leaders draw from history to make fashion more sustainable today; Kendall Becker, fashion editor and trend forecaster, forecasts the hottest trends of 2022, and what will be left in 2021; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Going Circular.'
Dr. Kate Strasdin, fashion historian & senior lecturer in Cultural Studies at Falmouth University, joins Cheddar Reveals to discuss the lessons industry leaders draw from history to make fashion more sustainable today.
A new survey from Etoro suggests that talking crypto might actually help Americans on the dating scene find love...or at least land another date. The survey found that 74% of respondents would be more interested in going on a second date with a person that pays the bill in Bitcoin. Callie Cox, Etoro's U.S. investment analyst, joined Cheddar News to discuss.
Energy Vault, the company developing sustainable, grid-scale energy storage solutions, is now trading on the New York Stock Exchange following the completion of its business combination with Novus Capital Corporation II. Energy Vault develops sustainable, grid-scale energy storage solutions designed to advance the transition to a carbon free, resilient power grid. Robert Piconi, co-founder and CEO of Energy Vault, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to disucss.
