Overview
There are approximately 1.5 million nonprofits registered in the U.S. Of course, not all of these nonprofits are actively raising funds. Just like in the business world, the competition for scarce dollars (donations) leads to vast differences in outcomes for these 1.5 million nonprofits. It begs the question—what causes certain nonprofits to succeed while others fail?
There are many factors that drive the success or failure of nonprofits. Of utmost importance is the ability to raise money. And the characteristics of the nonprofit in question undoubtedly contribute to or hinder its ability to raise those precious dollars.
One nonprofit characteristic that is easy to take for granted is religious affiliation. Most churches are actually nonprofits, and many nonprofits in the U.S. are religiously affiliated. In fact, religious nonprofits represented about 40% of social safety net spending in a recent study by Bridgespan.
Whether a religious affiliation, such as Christianity, helps or hurts a nonprofit is debatable. On the one hand, Christians tend to donate more to charity than the nonreligious, over double by many standards (Philanthropy Round Table, 2019). On the other hand, the proportion of people in the U.S. who identify as Christian is declining (Pew Research Center, 2019). It remains an open question whether the nonreligious are less likely to give to a religious nonprofit.
There are many factors that drive the success or failure of nonprofits. Of utmost importance is the ability to raise money. And the characteristics of the nonprofit in question undoubtedly contribute to or hinder its ability to raise those precious dollars.
One nonprofit characteristic that is easy to take for granted is religious affiliation. Most churches are actually nonprofits, and many nonprofits in the U.S. are religiously affiliated. In fact, religious nonprofits represented about 40% of social safety net spending in a recent study by Bridgespan.
Whether a religious affiliation, such as Christianity, helps or hurts a nonprofit is debatable. On the one hand, Christians tend to donate more to charity than the nonreligious, over double by many standards (Philanthropy Round Table, 2019). On the other hand, the proportion of people in the U.S. who identify as Christian is declining (Pew Research Center, 2019). It remains an open question whether the nonreligious are less likely to give to a religious nonprofit.
The Experiment
We ran an experiment with 200 people to test whether a nonprofit’s religious affiliation helps or hurts donation likelihood, and whether the potential donor’s religious beliefs influence such an effect. This within-subjects experiment was conducted on the online research platform Prolific.
Participants completed a donation allocation activity in which they were asked to help the researcher allocate two sums of $100 between two pairs of nonprofits. For example, a participant could allocate $40 to Nonprofit A and $60 to Nonprofit B, then on the next screen they could allocate $75 to Nonprofit C and $25 to Nonprofit D. For the experiment, we randomized one of the pairs to contain one religious nonprofit (with “Christian” in the name) while the other pair contained a nonreligious nonprofit (with “Human” in the name) for comparison. Our outcome of interest was the difference in donation amount to the religious nonprofit versus its nonreligious counterpart in the other pair (on the other page).
We used counterbalancing to ensure participants’ donation allocations were not confounded with the order or type of nonprofit. Thus, we randomized the order in which the nonprofit pairs were presented (i.e., religious-containing pair first or last), and also randomized which pair contained the religious nonprofit—one pair of nonprofits was focused on the environment, planting gardens or wildflowers in the community, while the other pair of nonprofits was focused on hunger reduction in the community. Finally, we also randomized whether the religious nonprofit and its nonreligious counterpart were displayed on the top or bottom of each page.
Below is an example to help illustrate how the nonprofits could be presented. The brackets indicate the randomized manipulation of religious vs. nonreligious nonprofit, with either “Christians” or “Humans” in the name and “religious organization” or just “organization” in the description.
Participants completed a donation allocation activity in which they were asked to help the researcher allocate two sums of $100 between two pairs of nonprofits. For example, a participant could allocate $40 to Nonprofit A and $60 to Nonprofit B, then on the next screen they could allocate $75 to Nonprofit C and $25 to Nonprofit D. For the experiment, we randomized one of the pairs to contain one religious nonprofit (with “Christian” in the name) while the other pair contained a nonreligious nonprofit (with “Human” in the name) for comparison. Our outcome of interest was the difference in donation amount to the religious nonprofit versus its nonreligious counterpart in the other pair (on the other page).
We used counterbalancing to ensure participants’ donation allocations were not confounded with the order or type of nonprofit. Thus, we randomized the order in which the nonprofit pairs were presented (i.e., religious-containing pair first or last), and also randomized which pair contained the religious nonprofit—one pair of nonprofits was focused on the environment, planting gardens or wildflowers in the community, while the other pair of nonprofits was focused on hunger reduction in the community. Finally, we also randomized whether the religious nonprofit and its nonreligious counterpart were displayed on the top or bottom of each page.
Below is an example to help illustrate how the nonprofits could be presented. The brackets indicate the randomized manipulation of religious vs. nonreligious nonprofit, with either “Christians” or “Humans” in the name and “religious organization” or just “organization” in the description.
Please read the nonprofit descriptions below:
[Humans / Christians] for the Environment
A [religious] organization that aides communities in setting up community gardens.
Greener Better Planet
An organization that helps communities plant trees and wildflowers on unused land.
[Humans / Christians] for the Environment
A [religious] organization that aides communities in setting up community gardens.
Greener Better Planet
An organization that helps communities plant trees and wildflowers on unused land.
Please read the nonprofit descriptions below:
[Humans / Christians] Fighting Food Scarcity
A [religious] organization that distributes nutritious food to hungry people in local communities.
The Food Connection
An organization that connects local grocery stores with nonprofits distributing food to the hungry.
[Humans / Christians] Fighting Food Scarcity
A [religious] organization that distributes nutritious food to hungry people in local communities.
The Food Connection
An organization that connects local grocery stores with nonprofits distributing food to the hungry.
After reading each pair of nonprofit descriptions, participants were instructed to “Please enter how much of the $100 you would like to allocate to each nonprofit below. The total must equal 100.” For our analysis, we compared the difference in donation amounts between “Christians” and “Humans” nonprofits.
A demographic survey at the end of the activity asked participants “What is your religion?” We then coded responses for Christian denominations. We also asked participants “How important is religion in your life?” as well as their habits toward church attendance and prayer outside of church. The results for these measures were in line with the results for our primary religion measure.
A demographic survey at the end of the activity asked participants “What is your religion?” We then coded responses for Christian denominations. We also asked participants “How important is religion in your life?” as well as their habits toward church attendance and prayer outside of church. The results for these measures were in line with the results for our primary religion measure.
Results
A paired samples t-test revealed significantly fewer donation dollars allocated to our religiously affiliated Christian nonprofits (avg. = $33.46) relative to our nonreligious nonprofits (avg. = $53.39), (p < 0.0001). This difference of $19.93 equates to a medium-to-large standardized effect size, as the figure below presents.
Equally interesting is how the religion of participants interacted with this effect. Using a two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), we found that Christian participants allocated significantly more donations to the religious nonprofit than non-Christians did—however, Christian participants still donated significantly less to the religious nonprofits than the nonreligious nonprofits (p < 0.0001). The figure below shows this “difference-in-differences.”
For robustness, we also tested for interactions between the main results and participants’ (a) importance placed on religion in their life, (b) frequency of church attendance, and (c) frequency of prayer. The results mirrored those of our significant interaction with Christian religion, revealing significant interactions for all three variables (p < 0.0001, p = 0.0251, p = 0.0002, respectively).
Less important but still worth noting, we also tested for interactions between our main effect (religious vs. nonreligious nonprofit) and our counterbalancing groups, specifically order (religious in first scenario vs. second), nonprofit impact area (environment vs. hunger), and top vs. bottom listing of our focal nonprofits in each pair (i.e., whether our religious and nonreligious nonprofits of focus were presented above or below their comparison nonprofit in each allocation scenario). We found no interaction of order (p = 0.654) nor impact area (p = 0.197), and only a marginally significant interaction with top vs. bottom listing (p = 0.088), suggesting that our manipulation of religious vs. nonreligious affiliation may have been slightly more salient when presented as the bottom item in each pair, perhaps since it was closer to the donation allocation boxes and more recently recallable in participants minds.
Conclusion
In the world of social good psychology, it looks like religious affiliation may not be a fundraising asset. Even Christians themselves seem less likely to donate to a Christian nonprofit than a secular one. But at the end of the day, religion and service are about far more than donation dollars. It will be interesting to see what other factors affect the fundraising prospects, and possibly the effectiveness, of nonprofit organizations.
References
The Bridgespan Group. Jan. 28, 2021. "Elevating the Role of Faith-Inspired Impact in the Social Sector."
Pew Research Center. Oct. 17, 2019. “In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace.”
Philanthropy Roundtable. "Less God, Less Giving? Religion and generosity feed each other in fascinating ways."
Pew Research Center. Oct. 17, 2019. “In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace.”
Philanthropy Roundtable. "Less God, Less Giving? Religion and generosity feed each other in fascinating ways."