The Effect of Benefit Framing on Recurring Donations

We investigate the impact of benefit framing on recurring donation intentions. Specifically, we propose that segregated (vs. aggregated) framing of benefits—i.e., presenting them as a set of distinct benefits —would be more effective in garnering recurring donations. The effect occurs because segregated (vs. aggregated) framing makes it easier for donors to match each recurring donation to a distinct benefit. We plan to conduct six online and three field experiments. Three online experiments will examine the main effect of segregated benefit framing, while three will focus on identifying the underlying causal mechanism.
Considering the critical reliance of charities on individual giving, which is prone to fluctuation, and the rising costs associated with acquiring new donors, our work is especially timely. Our findings offer a cost-effective method for charities to increase repeat giving and address the gap in donation literature that extensively investigated one-time donations and mostly overlooked recurring giving.