There are two types of impact information a charity could share:

• Actual impact is the difference a donation, or the charity, had on the cause and can be shown with data from the field. 
• Perceived impact is the difference supporters perceive their donation, or the charity, could have e.g. $15 could buy medicine.

In my previous post on impact, we saw how increasing a supporter’s perceived impact could have a positive effect on giving. What about actual impact? Say we removed any barriers in accessing it by making it readily available to supporters, what would be the effect on giving?

Does information on actual impact increase giving?

A study tested the effect of information about a charity’s effectiveness on giving. Working with an international development organization, the researchers created two varying appeal letters. The control version included a person’s story about how they’ve been helped. The test version included the same story and a brief description of the program’s impact as measured by scientific research. The result? No overall effect on either donation rates or average gifts. But, when they split the audience based on size of previous gifts – more or less than $100 – they found an interesting difference: in the presence of actual impact information, supporters who had given more than $100 in the past were more likely to give while supporters who gave less than $100 in the past were less likely to give.

Research on actual impact also featured in our Online Symposium. Here’s a quick summary of the findings (click on headings for slides of each talk).

Prof. David Reinstein – Could you increase giving with info on charity effectiveness & impact?

In six studies, these researchers explored the effect of charity efficiency / effectiveness information on giving. In some cases, they shared scores on the charity’s financial performance as well as on accountability and transparency e.g. financial 87 out of 100. In other cases, they shared additional information on the cost per benefit e.g. it costs roughly $5 per day to support a guide dog. Results were mixed and showed little influence of either type of information on donation rates and amounts. In most cases, this info didn’t hurt while in some cases it helped.

Larissa Peters, Catholic Relief Services – Getting repeat donations; emotion & impact at work

Catholic Relief Services tested how information on the charity’s actual impact would affect donations to their email appeals. Compared to the control, the test email included a sentence that talked about their actual impact and the efficient use of money: “$10 = help for a family of 5. Last year, we were able to provide food, water, education, health care and human dignity to a family of 5 for a whole year with just $10.” This led to a 167% increase in gift conversions but it also reduced average gift by 83%. Still, overall revenue was up by 56%. The reduction in average gift could have been due to the mention of $10 which might have anchored supporters to a low amount.

In another email campaign, CRS tested the effect of actual impact information but this time presented as an infographic with the message “preventative interventions reduced childhood cases of malaria by 57%”. This increased number of gifts by 20% but decreased average gift by 14%. Revenue was up by 3%. This is the second time, with the same audience, where impact information increased responses but decreased average gift. Follow up testing is underway to investigate whether impact info affects response rates and average gifts in a different way.

Taken together: results on the effect of actual impact on giving are mixed. Overall, there doesn’t seem to be a strong effect. But it did have a positive effect on giving for specific audiences (>$100) while some interventions were successful in increasing response rates. On the other hand, the same information had a negative effect on giving for supporters who give less than $100 and it might also affect negatively average gift. More testing is required, with your specific audience, to determine whether this could be a successful intervention for you.

Kiki

P.S.  Interested in finding out more or testing some of these ideas? Email me at kkoutmeridou@thedonorvoice.com