People give more when beneficiaries €˜make an effort'
Howard Lake | 6 September 2007 | News
People are more likely to give more to the victims of disasters when they think that beneficiaries are making an effort to help themselves and when the victims are not deemed to be responsible for the situation.
A series of studies by Dr Hanna Zagefka and Dr Masi Noor of the Royal Holloway University of London for the British Psychological Society’s annual conference reveals why people donate more generously towards some humanitarian disasters than others.
There were four studies, looking at willingness to donate to victims of the 2004 tsunami, and to the Darfur crisis as well as hypothetical disasters.
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Results showed that people are more willing to donate if disasters were caused by natural factors rather than manmade – famine following natural drought rather than famine following armed conflict, for example.
Positive emotions such as empathy towards the victims also increase people’s willingness to donate. When people believed their donations had the potential to make a ‘real difference’ in the region affected, they were more inclined to donate.
People also considered their country’s relations with that of the affected country when they made donations. They are less willing to donate if the victim country’s regime is perceived to be an enemy, rather than an ally. Dr Zagefka said this was interesting because often disaster victims might not actually support the regime, for example in a dictatorship. Nonetheless donors are biased against them because victims are associated with the enemy regime.
The authors suggest that fundraising campaigns should seek to represent the victims as proactive rather than passive and they should convey the message that donations will be ‘effective’, establishing a feeling of trust in the potential donor. Campaigns should also highlight positive relations between the donor’s and the victim’s countries, or if this is not possible, then provide information that could help donors see the diversity of groups within that country.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.