My prior here is that donation matching must be relatively effective because mainstream charities use it somewhat extensively. One thing that I would emphasise is that it’s a very very easy way for large donors to have (or at least fell like they have—which is very valuable for charities dealing with large donors) a “bonus” effect with their donations, it takes little resources or time and is neutral (if the matched funds are precommitted not like from a commercial sponsor). Other schemes big charities use (auctions, reinvestmentet in marketing) are a lot more complex and potentially require greater donor interaction and day to day commitment
I do think the research makes a very good point about more than 1:1matching—that seems to be a real diminishing return that should be avoided.
My prior here is that donation matching must be relatively effective because mainstream charities use it somewhat extensively.
Well, yes, the charities definitely have an incentive to promote donation matches, because it makes big donors feel better about their donation and hence donate more! So I’m not sure this is strong evidence that donations have an effect.
Also, matching campaigns are good publicity for the matcher, which explains at least some of them (corporations/mean people trying to clean up their image, etc.).
Also, this probably doesn’t need repeating on the EA forum of all places, but mainstream charities do ineffective things all the time :)
it takes little resources or time and is neutral
I mentioned a couple low-touch alternatives to matching campaigns in the full post, like seed money and “covering overhead.” There’s weak evidence that these are competitive with or better than matching, although it hasn’t been well-studied.
If big donors feel better and donate more, I’m not convinced that is a neutral thing. If running a matching donation drive doesn’t get more donations from the matchees but does pull more money from the matchers, that may have a fairly large effect. I have certainly thought about donating more money than I otherwise would have when I heard it could be used to run a matching fundraiser. If they truly don’t attract more matchee funds then I suppose it is epistemically unvirtuous to ask matchers to donate, since this implies it has an effect, but nonetheless a mechanism like this to get matchers to donate more seems not too different than the original deal (where it seems like the matchees are kind of being deluded into giving more anyways).
Not sure if I made this clear in the post, but I’m looking at matching from the perspective of a potential matching donor, not from the charity’s perspective. From the perspective of a (purely rational) matching donor, you shouldn’t be concerned with whether the match pulls more money from you.
My prior here is that donation matching must be relatively effective because mainstream charities use it somewhat extensively. One thing that I would emphasise is that it’s a very very easy way for large donors to have (or at least fell like they have—which is very valuable for charities dealing with large donors) a “bonus” effect with their donations, it takes little resources or time and is neutral (if the matched funds are precommitted not like from a commercial sponsor). Other schemes big charities use (auctions, reinvestmentet in marketing) are a lot more complex and potentially require greater donor interaction and day to day commitment
I do think the research makes a very good point about more than 1:1matching—that seems to be a real diminishing return that should be avoided.
Well, yes, the charities definitely have an incentive to promote donation matches, because it makes big donors feel better about their donation and hence donate more! So I’m not sure this is strong evidence that donations have an effect.
Also, matching campaigns are good publicity for the matcher, which explains at least some of them (corporations/mean people trying to clean up their image, etc.).
Also, this probably doesn’t need repeating on the EA forum of all places, but mainstream charities do ineffective things all the time :)
I mentioned a couple low-touch alternatives to matching campaigns in the full post, like seed money and “covering overhead.” There’s weak evidence that these are competitive with or better than matching, although it hasn’t been well-studied.
If big donors feel better and donate more, I’m not convinced that is a neutral thing. If running a matching donation drive doesn’t get more donations from the matchees but does pull more money from the matchers, that may have a fairly large effect. I have certainly thought about donating more money than I otherwise would have when I heard it could be used to run a matching fundraiser. If they truly don’t attract more matchee funds then I suppose it is epistemically unvirtuous to ask matchers to donate, since this implies it has an effect, but nonetheless a mechanism like this to get matchers to donate more seems not too different than the original deal (where it seems like the matchees are kind of being deluded into giving more anyways).
Not sure if I made this clear in the post, but I’m looking at matching from the perspective of a potential matching donor, not from the charity’s perspective. From the perspective of a (purely rational) matching donor, you shouldn’t be concerned with whether the match pulls more money from you.