The Effect of Effectiveness
The Effect of Effectiveness

Author: Dean S. Karlan

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 26

ISBN-13:

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We test how donors respond to new information about a charity's effectiveness. Freedom from Hunger implemented a test of its direct marketing solicitations, varying letters by whether they include a discussion of their program's impact as measured by scientific research. The base script, used for both treatment and control, included a standard qualitative story about an individual beneficiary. Adding scientific impact information has no effect on whether someone donates, or how much, in the full sample. However, we find that amongst recent prior donors (those we posit more likely to open the mail and thus notice the treatment), large prior donors increase the likelihood of giving in response to information on aid effectiveness, whereas small prior donors decrease their giving. We motivate the analysis and experiment with a theoretical model that highlights two predictions. First, larger gift amounts, holding education and income constant, is a proxy for altruism giving (as it is associated with giving more to fewer charities) versus warm glow giving (giving less to more charities). Second, those motivated by altruism will respond positively to appeals based on evidence, whereas those motivated by warm glow may respond negatively to appeals based on evidence as it turns off the emotional trigger for giving, or highlights uncertainty in aid effectiveness.

Making Direct Response Fund Raising Pay Off
Making Direct Response Fund Raising Pay Off

Author: Jerry Huntsinger

Publisher: Precept Press

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13:

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Dozens of diagrammed fund-raising letters with specific examples of language, style, approach, content, and usage. This book gives you creative ideas and shows you how to make them work in your fund-raising efforts.

To Retain? To Upgrade? The Effects of Direct Mail on Regular Donation Behavior
To Retain? To Upgrade? The Effects of Direct Mail on Regular Donation Behavior

Author: Suman Ann Thomas

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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In this paper, we look at the donation behavior of donors who periodically contribute a preset amount to a particular charity. The charity firm makes extensive use of direct mail to nurture these donors, and in fact sends two types of mails, one that seeks to retain the donors (retention-seeking mails) and the other requesting them to upgrade their donation amount (upgrade-seeking mails). We study the different effects of the two types of direct mail on the donation behavior. To these mails, a donor has to respond by making two decisions: “should I continue donating or not?” and “should I upgrade or not?” We propose a multi-response model that accommodates not only the differential effects of the two types of mail on the donors, but also the possible correlation across the two response functions for each donor. We fit our model to a very large data set to explore whether our model can extract the unique impact of demographics and those of the two types of mail on the two aspects of donation behavior. What makes it more interesting is that the charity firm deliberately uses the observed donation behavior of people to design the two types of mail. In our model and estimation, we explicitly account for this endogenous effect to ensure that we measure the unbiased impact of the two types of mail on the two responses of the donors. Our results show that once we account for the endogenous effect and separately model the effect of different types of mail on each type of donor response, we get a much clearer picture of the “true” effects of these mails, as opposed to a simpler model that does not incorporate these effects. Firms are advised to not only carefully analyze the donation behavior of the donors but also carry out simulation exercises to understand the effects of mails in totality before taking action.

How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters
How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters

Author: Mal Warwick

Publisher:

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 9780962489174

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For busy fundraisers, writing letters of appeal can be confusing and laborious. Now, a guide from the nation's premier letter-writing tutordirect mail expert Mal Warwickshows fundraisers what makes the best letters work. Whether its general advice about the most effective mail strategies, or specific advice for those interested in the details of a direct mail campaign, Warwick keeps fundraisers on track when he reminds: "You're writing for resultsnot a Pulitzer Prize." In How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters, Warwick's step-by-step model for writing a successful appeal walks you through the critical stages; his topics range from laying the groundwork for a prosperous campaign all the way through to the importance of thanking donors. Supported by an extensive collection of model letters, Warwick's no-nonsense, jargon-free work has helped thousands of fundraisers achieve results.

Discourse in the Professions
Discourse in the Professions

Author: ... Connor-Upton

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2004-01-01

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 9789027222879

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This book explores the structure and use of academic and professional discourse through the lens of corpus linguistics. The goal of this book is to show how insights from corpus linguistic analyses can help us better understand how we use academic and professional language and help us find ways to better train newcomers to the genres used in various professional contexts. The contributions to this book show that specialized corpora of specific genres from a variety of fields allow us to make more relevant observations about the function and use of language for particular purposes. The specialized corpora examined include written and spoken academic genres, written and spoken business and legal genres, and written philanthropic genres. The book showcases a variety of approaches to analyzing the discourse of specialized corpora, and each chapter concludes with a reflection on the practical and pedagogical implications of the analysis.

The Advocate
The Advocate

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2001-08-14

Total Pages: 96

ISBN-13:

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The Advocate is a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) monthly newsmagazine. Established in 1967, it is the oldest continuing LGBT publication in the United States.

Handbook of Social Comparison
Handbook of Social Comparison

Author: Jerry Suls

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-11-11

Total Pages: 502

ISBN-13: 1461542375

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Comparison of objects, events, and situations is integral to judgment; comparisons of the self with other people comprise one of the building blocks of human conduct and experience. After four decades of research, the topic of social comparison is more popular than ever. In this timely handbook a distinguished roster of researchers and theoreticians describe where the field has been since its development in the early 1950s and where it is likely to go next.