“Does Price Matter in Charitable Giving? Evidence from a Large-Scale Natural Field Experiment”, 2007-12-01 (; backlinks):
We conducted a natural field experiment to further our understanding of the economics of charity.
Using direct mail solicitations to over 50,000 prior donors of a nonprofit organization, we tested the effectiveness of a matching grant on charitable giving.
We find that the match offer increases both the revenue per solicitation and the response rate. Larger match ratios (ie. $3:$1 and $2:$1) relative to a smaller match ratio ($1:$1) had no additional impact, however.
The results provide avenues for future empirical and theoretical work on charitable giving, cost-benefit analysis, and the private provision of public goods.