Research Contract: Novel Approaches to Increase Donor Retention in Charity Marketing

Charities such as the Red Cross, Caritas, UNICEF or Greenpeace are some of the most widely recognized organizations in the world and fulfill important social missions. However, many charitable organizations are nowadays facing declining donor acquisition and retention rates, thus making it necessary to identify novel ways to attract new and retain existing donors. As part of this overarching research question, a first research project aims to examine such a novel approach in collaboration with two leading charity organizations. Building on a series of field and lab experimental studies, this research is the first to investigate whether offering donors feedback on the specific usage of their donation has the potential to improve donor retention rates and drive positive word of mouth in donors’ public (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and private channels (WhatsApp, SMS, Email). The project further aims to investigate whether more personalized messages are more effective in driving donors’ sharing and donation behavior and gain understanding of the psychological mechanisms that explain these behaviors. The insights generated by this research project have the potential to make an important theoretical contribution to the extant literature on charitable giving and offer actionable implications that go beyond the state-of-the-art of the charity marketing practice.

Forschungsstipendium der WU

WU