2 adults + baby for 2.5 hours raised £280 (GBP) - so £56/hr if you have a baby. One thing to mention was that the cause was perhaps more appealing. Caveat: it was the early days of the Ebola crisis and we thought that it was a risky but potentially high value philanthropic opportunity to give to UN/charities with exclusive funding for the more promising means of ebola prevention. So that might have appealed to people more—but I think people were mainly giving because they felt pressured. In my head I conservatively budget for at least £10 of that £56/hr disappearing because we used up some of their goodwill in getting them to give a little, and they will be less generous in other areas of their life. Even though we’re in Oxford, we also heard a lot of “I’ve given some already” or “I give regularly” or “I have already given to that one” as people walked by.
Street pouncing on cornmarket with buckets. Opposite gender same age seemed to be most generous (occasional £20 notes—male for Abbie, female for me—not sure what’s going on there, and only 4 data points so probably chance).
Hey, this is really neat! Big kudos for doing this! I’d be excited for follow ups.
Why three charities? Do you think just one might be more successful?
If enough people do this, it could be an excellent opportunity to A-B test.
2 adults + baby for 2.5 hours raised £280 (GBP) - so £56/hr if you have a baby. One thing to mention was that the cause was perhaps more appealing. Caveat: it was the early days of the Ebola crisis and we thought that it was a risky but potentially high value philanthropic opportunity to give to UN/charities with exclusive funding for the more promising means of ebola prevention. So that might have appealed to people more—but I think people were mainly giving because they felt pressured. In my head I conservatively budget for at least £10 of that £56/hr disappearing because we used up some of their goodwill in getting them to give a little, and they will be less generous in other areas of their life. Even though we’re in Oxford, we also heard a lot of “I’ve given some already” or “I give regularly” or “I have already given to that one” as people walked by.
Thanks for sharing! What were you doing? Going door-to-door?
Street pouncing on cornmarket with buckets. Opposite gender same age seemed to be most generous (occasional £20 notes—male for Abbie, female for me—not sure what’s going on there, and only 4 data points so probably chance).
Thanks. I had no reason for picking three charities other than that it just seemed natural to me (I made the PDF quickly without much thought).
I don’t know if just one charity would be more successful. The three people who donated in this case didn’t seem particular about the causes.
I’d be willing to do it again as part of a test.
Sure! When Charity Science gets around to testing door-to-door, we’ll definitely be in touch.