Fundraising Solicitations: How Can Frame and Price Effects Influence Donor's Behavior

Many studies have analyzed psychological framing effects (Kahnenan & Tversky, 1979, 1984; Tversky & Kahneman, 1981; Thaler, 1985) and the likelihood that they influence perception and consumer behavior (Legrenzi, Girotto & Johnson-Laird, 1993; Grewal, Gotlieb, & Marmorstein, 1994; Chen, Monroe, & Lou, 1998; Janiszewski & Cunha, 2004; Raj, 2008). But the same variables and the contest that characterizes fundraising solicitations are quite different as related to consumption behavior. The motivations and the aspects that could influence a giving behavior are manifold (Gittell & Tebaldi, 2006; Lindahl & Conley, 2002; Sargeant & Woodliffe, 2007) and are connected to psychological dynamics, cultural, social, and religious affiliations, demographic characteristics etc. Zolner, Compeau, Jones & Munger (2010) have pointed out that also the frame in which a nonprofit solicitation is presented can influence the probability to be engaged in the exchange. In particular, it seems there is an inverse relationship between transaction amount and consumers’ likelihood of engaging on it and the framing effect results to be relevant only in the case of high- level value, within a range of acceptable values emerged in the pre-test phase (Zolner et al., 2010). Starting from this and with intentions of a deeper analysis, this study analyzes the framing effect (donation or purchase frame) and price effect (taking into account underestimated and overestimated values compared to the acceptable level of price found out during the pre-test phase) related to specific fundraising solicitations. Furthermore, two new variable are introduced: 1) to have or not to have done a donation in the past year, and 2) to be engaged to the specific field of the «good cause» used in the fundraising appeals. The study use Computer-assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) with a sample of 320 subjects. Two levels of framing (purchase and donation) and three levels of price (underestimated, normal and overestimated) were fully-crossed in a 2 × 3 randomized factorial design. The results were later analyzed by clustering the sample on the strength of habits of donation and on the engagement to the cause. This study aims at confirming the previous similar researches (Zolner at. al., 2010) observing stronger evidence and underlining differences according to the giving culture between United States of America and Italy.