Great that you’re doing this, thanks so much for raising this here!
Not sure if you’re already aware of this, but you might want to be aware of other studies that have looked at similar questions. In particular the Money For Good study in the US and the equivalent in the UK were interesting, albeit somewhat dated. (I have the raw data for the UK study). You might want to have a look so that you can use consistent question wording whether the questions overlap.
Some questions that we at SoGive would be interested to know more about:
The last time you gave to charity, what triggered you to give? (a) someone asked me (b) I decided myself [could break (a) down further, perhaps] [Note, this has been studied before, but to my knowledge not recently. Also I’ve never seen an analysis of the correlates of self-driven giving]
For the donor population, I’d like to understand the split between what we at SoGive call Organisation-loyal, Cause-specific, and Open-minded donors (hopefully the labels are self-explanatory but if not please ask). We would be interested to know specifically to what extent are those preferences moderate preferences (defined as: if the person is choosing a charity to donate to, they will follow that preference) and to what extent are they strong preferences (i.e. if someone else asks them to donate, they will say no unless the donation target is consistent with their preference). We at SoGive currently have some thoughts on this, which I can expand on if you’re interested.
In terms of cause areas, it would be useful to know whether moral-circle thinking is a good model for explaining cause preferences. E.g. if someone is happy to support people in the developing world, are they more likely to support animals? Or those in the far future? (see also the research we conducted on attitudes to the far future)
A deeper understanding of why people never donate would be interesting. Self-reported answers tell us something, but there is some evidence that donors (at least some of the time) are non-donors because they just don’t want to give and are looking for excuses (“motivated reasoning”). I wrote about this here, and referenced some studies, e.g. this, this and this (which were mentioned to me by a contact at Rethink Charity). Something which tried to quantify this (i.e. how many non-donors will never give, and how many non-donors would give if their needs were better met) would be really interesting, but possibly too hard for the scope of your study.
Some researchers are doing some interesting work on how people give—the names Beth Breeze and Cat Walker spring to mind, although there are others as well. But you may well be too time-constrained to wade through all their work, in which case I suggest you just take a look at the Money for Good studies mentioned earlier.
More generally, very happy to discuss further. If you are willing to have a chat, let me know: sanjay [at] sogive.org
For the donor population, I’d like to understand the split between what we at SoGive call Organisation-loyal, Cause-specific, and Open-minded donors (hopefully the labels are self-explanatory but if not please ask)
I believe so, but let me try.
Org-loyal: always give to a specific organization whatever it does
Cause-specific: throw money at a specific cause, e.g. global warming, doesn’t necessarily care about the receiving org that much
Open-minded: happy to change their mind about both of the above
I am not confident I would be able to create high-quality survey questions though. Especially to distinguish between strong and moderate preferences. I have similar problems with the next bullet points. Maybe I am overthinking this though.
But you may well be too time-constrained to wade through all their work
Yeah, I have about a week to do send some suggestions as the study should be launched by Jan 2. Nevertheless, I believe that even if I managed to establish only a handful of high-quality questions, it would be good groundwork for future additions.
More generally, very happy to discuss further. If you are willing to have a chat, let me know: sanjay [at] sogive.org
Awesome, I would be really grateful for more help. Basically, they told me that if I put together some battery of questions in a doc, then they would incorporate it into the survey. My estimate is that they would put in at least 3 questions with 60% of probability, but I am having a really hard time to estimate this as there are a lot of factors in. But it seems to me that it’s still worth to invest a few hours into this.
I created a document where I want to start summarizing this. Feel free to contribute directly.
Great that you’re doing this, thanks so much for raising this here!
Not sure if you’re already aware of this, but you might want to be aware of other studies that have looked at similar questions. In particular the Money For Good study in the US and the equivalent in the UK were interesting, albeit somewhat dated. (I have the raw data for the UK study). You might want to have a look so that you can use consistent question wording whether the questions overlap.
Some questions that we at SoGive would be interested to know more about:
The last time you gave to charity, what triggered you to give? (a) someone asked me (b) I decided myself [could break (a) down further, perhaps] [Note, this has been studied before, but to my knowledge not recently. Also I’ve never seen an analysis of the correlates of self-driven giving]
For the donor population, I’d like to understand the split between what we at SoGive call Organisation-loyal, Cause-specific, and Open-minded donors (hopefully the labels are self-explanatory but if not please ask). We would be interested to know specifically to what extent are those preferences moderate preferences (defined as: if the person is choosing a charity to donate to, they will follow that preference) and to what extent are they strong preferences (i.e. if someone else asks them to donate, they will say no unless the donation target is consistent with their preference). We at SoGive currently have some thoughts on this, which I can expand on if you’re interested.
In terms of cause areas, it would be useful to know whether moral-circle thinking is a good model for explaining cause preferences. E.g. if someone is happy to support people in the developing world, are they more likely to support animals? Or those in the far future? (see also the research we conducted on attitudes to the far future)
A deeper understanding of why people never donate would be interesting. Self-reported answers tell us something, but there is some evidence that donors (at least some of the time) are non-donors because they just don’t want to give and are looking for excuses (“motivated reasoning”). I wrote about this here, and referenced some studies, e.g. this, this and this (which were mentioned to me by a contact at Rethink Charity). Something which tried to quantify this (i.e. how many non-donors will never give, and how many non-donors would give if their needs were better met) would be really interesting, but possibly too hard for the scope of your study.
Some researchers are doing some interesting work on how people give—the names Beth Breeze and Cat Walker spring to mind, although there are others as well. But you may well be too time-constrained to wade through all their work, in which case I suggest you just take a look at the Money for Good studies mentioned earlier.
More generally, very happy to discuss further. If you are willing to have a chat, let me know: sanjay [at] sogive.org
Hi! Thanks a lot, these are all great!
I believe so, but let me try.
Org-loyal: always give to a specific organization whatever it does
Cause-specific: throw money at a specific cause, e.g. global warming, doesn’t necessarily care about the receiving org that much
Open-minded: happy to change their mind about both of the above
I am not confident I would be able to create high-quality survey questions though. Especially to distinguish between strong and moderate preferences. I have similar problems with the next bullet points. Maybe I am overthinking this though.
Yeah, I have about a week to do send some suggestions as the study should be launched by Jan 2. Nevertheless, I believe that even if I managed to establish only a handful of high-quality questions, it would be good groundwork for future additions.
Awesome, I would be really grateful for more help. Basically, they told me that if I put together some battery of questions in a doc, then they would incorporate it into the survey. My estimate is that they would put in at least 3 questions with 60% of probability, but I am having a really hard time to estimate this as there are a lot of factors in. But it seems to me that it’s still worth to invest a few hours into this.
I created a document where I want to start summarizing this. Feel free to contribute directly.