The effects of solicitation and target amounts on consumers' charitable giving decisions

Abstract

This research examines the effect of double reference values in the context of charitable giving decision-making. We investigate how the two types of information that commonly appear in charitable giving campaigns-solicitation amount (e.g., "Your $1 matters") and target amount (e.g., "Help Us Raise $305,000")- interact to determine consumers' decisions on how much to donate. Through four studies, we demonstrate that solicitation amount, compared with target amount, exerts a stronger influence on consumers' donation decisions. Target amount influences the donation decision only when it is presented alone in the message. Furthermore, the study results demonstrate that using a small solicitation amount to enhance compliance can backfire, reducing the average donation amount and the total donation revenue. This study offers important practical implications to marketers for designing an effective charitable giving campaign, especially for the selective use of potential reference values in the solicitation message.