The Research Behind Item Giving

Here's the research. You don't have to just take our word for it.

We could tell you item giving works. But we'd rather show you the research, because your board is going to ask, "how do we know this works?" And "trust us" isn't a great answer.

Here are four studies worth knowing, in plain language.

1. Specifics beat vague asks. By a lot.

Researchers Cryder, Loewenstein, and Scheines ran controlled experiments testing what happens when you give donors a concrete picture of how their money will be used, instead of a general appeal.

The result: giving went up by roughly 80%. That's not a typo. People don't give more because they're told "your gift helps." They give more when they can picture exactly what it buys.

2. Earmarked gifts bring in donors who weren't going to give at all.

A massive study of over 7,300 potential donors across 25 countries, published in Management Science (Fuchs, de Jong & Schreier, 2020), found that letting people choose exactly what their donation goes toward works mainly by activating people who otherwise wouldn't give anything (i.e. new donor acquisition!). It's not just a bigger slice of the same pie. It's a bigger pie.

3. Choice increases both the odds someone gives, and how much.

A field experiment with 40,893 donors (Esterzon and colleagues, Journal of Marketing, 2023) found that letting donors pick specific projects raised the likelihood someone would give by 14% and increased total revenue by 27%. Choice isn't just a nice feature. It's measurably more effective for your fundraising.

4. People hate the idea of their gift going to "overhead."

A study published in Science (Gneezy, Keenan & Gneezy, 2014) found donors are strongly averse to the idea that their money funds administrative costs rather than the mission itself. This is exactly why "your donation is this specific item" works better than "your donation supports our operations." Even when both dollars ultimately do the same job.

Put together, here's the honest picture:

The research says specific, tangible, donor-chosen giving increases how many people give and how much they give. What the research does not yet say (and we won't pretend otherwise) is whether item giving improves long-term donor retention. That study hasn't been done, that we know of. It's one we're genuinely excited to run on our own Mindful Giving platform data. Because if the effect is real, it'll be the first proof of it anywhere.

Sources: Cryder, Loewenstein & Scheines (2013); Fuchs, de Jong & Schreier, Management Science (2020); Esterzon, Lemmens & Van den Bergh, Journal of Marketing (2023); Gneezy, Keenan & Gneezy, Science (2014).

Schedule a demo and discover how you can simplify operations, engage more new donors, and deliver exactly what your community needs, when they need it.