Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." (Matthew 19:14)
Overview
Nonprofit organizations do a lot of good for society. But to accomplish that good, nonprofits require resources, particularly financial donations. With over 1.5 million nonprofits in the U.S. alone, the competition for donations is high. This led us to the question of what factors affect a nonprofit’s ability to raise donations?
One factor that we often take for granted is who the nonprofit is helping. Might there be certain groups of people in need who elicit more donations to the nonprofits helping them? In particular, we hypothesize that children, a vulnerable group that elicits strong feelings of compassion when in need, are likely to receive more support from donors than adults.
One factor that we often take for granted is who the nonprofit is helping. Might there be certain groups of people in need who elicit more donations to the nonprofits helping them? In particular, we hypothesize that children, a vulnerable group that elicits strong feelings of compassion when in need, are likely to receive more support from donors than adults.
The Experiment
To test whether a nonprofit’s focus on helping children vs. adults affects people’s likeliness to donate, we ran a within-subjects experiment with 200 people on the online research platform Prolific. Participants were instructed to read a few brief descriptions of nonprofits, including one focused on child education and one focused on adult education, then answer a survey question asking how likely they’d be to donate to each nonprofit.
We used two hypothetical education nonprofits for this experiment, randomizing whether each was framed as helping adults or children. These nonprofits were (a) the “Adults’ (Children’s) Learning Center: an organization that provides free (afterschool) classes for adults (K-12 kids),” and “E-Knowledge Kids (Adults): an organization that provides online tech classes for K-12 children (adults).” For each participant, we randomized which of these two nonprofits focused on children, with the other focusing on adults. We also randomized the order in which the two nonprofits were presented to each participant for counterbalancing.
Below is an example to help illustrate one combination that participants could have seen.
We used two hypothetical education nonprofits for this experiment, randomizing whether each was framed as helping adults or children. These nonprofits were (a) the “Adults’ (Children’s) Learning Center: an organization that provides free (afterschool) classes for adults (K-12 kids),” and “E-Knowledge Kids (Adults): an organization that provides online tech classes for K-12 children (adults).” For each participant, we randomized which of these two nonprofits focused on children, with the other focusing on adults. We also randomized the order in which the two nonprofits were presented to each participant for counterbalancing.
Below is an example to help illustrate one combination that participants could have seen.
Please read the nonprofit description below.
Adults’ Learning Center
An organization that provides free classes for adults.
Adults’ Learning Center
An organization that provides free classes for adults.
Please read the nonprofit description below.
E-Knowledge Kids
An organization that provides online tech classes for K-12 children.
E-Knowledge Kids
An organization that provides online tech classes for K-12 children.
After reading each nonprofit description, participants were asked “How likely would you be to donate to this nonprofit? (1 = Very Unlikely, 7 = Very Likely)” on a 1-7 scale. This served as our outcome measure of interest, similar to prior studies (Lee, et al., 2014).
Given that participants’ self-reported likeliness to donate may differ from their actual giving, we also measured whether each participant gives more than $100 per year to charity or churches, using a brief demographic survey at the end of the activity.
Given that participants’ self-reported likeliness to donate may differ from their actual giving, we also measured whether each participant gives more than $100 per year to charity or churches, using a brief demographic survey at the end of the activity.
Results
Using a paired samples t-test, we found that participants were significantly more likely to donate to the nonprofit focused on education for children (avg. = 4.70) than adults (avg. = 4.15), a 13.3% increase (p < 0.001). The figure below illustrates this difference.
Next, we tested whether the results differed based on whether participants actually donate to charity over $100 annually. Approximately 38% of our sample reported doing so. However, we found no interaction effect of this real-life giving on the difference in likeliness to donate between adult-focused vs. children-focused nonprofits (p = 0.842).
Finally, we tested whether the results were affected by order (adult first vs. children first) or specific name and description of the nonprofits (E-Knowledge vs. Learning Center). We did not find any order effect (p = 0.128). However, we did find a significant interaction effect between the name/description of the nonprofit and our main difference for adults vs. children (p < 0.0001).
When E-Knowledge, which provides online tech classes, was framed as helping children, there was a non-significant difference of 0.23 points in donation likeliness (1-7 scale) in favor of adults over children (p = 0.111). However, when the Learning Center, which provides free general classes, was framed as helping children, there was a very significant difference of 1.32 points in donation likeliness in favor of children over adults (p < 0.001). The figure below graphically presents this interaction.
One theory for this difference is that today’s children are growing up with enough technology to already be tech-savvy, and thus may not get as much benefit from a nonprofit like E-Knowledge. Adults, on the other hand, may benefit more from classes on technology they are unfamiliar with. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many children to learn remotely through video conferencing. This may have helped their tech skills, but likely impaired their learning in traditional subjects. Thus, today’s children may benefit more from a traditional afterschool program like the Learning Center.
Conclusion
This study suggests that, at least within the field of education, a nonprofit focused on helping children may indeed net more donations than a nonprofit focused on adults. However, the results also suggest a great deal of nuance to this claim. The specific service provided by the nonprofit may greatly affect its success in raising funds to help children relative to adults. It will be interesting to see how other nonprofit industries and services stack up against these results.
References
Lee, S., Winterich, K. P., Ross, W. T. (2014). I'm Moral, but I Won't Help You: The Distinct Roles of Empathy and Justice in Donations. Journal of Consumer Research. 41(3), 678–696, https://doi.org/10.1086/677226