Donors do not accurately predict what kinds of messages will get them giving, according to new research from eBay and nfpSynergy.
A survey conducted by the retailer of its eBay Give at Checkout facility tested 17 different asks for a £1 donation to be added at purchase across more than 500,000 eBay users. NfpSynergy then surveyed a sample of 1,000 adults asking how likely they would be to give to each of those £1 asks.
The results have indicated that donors were not as attuned to their own propensity to give to various appeals as may have been thought.
eBay shoppers were most likely to give to the ask to ‘support the fight against prostate, testicular and bowel cancer’, but this was only the fourth most popular ask in the survey conducted by nfpSynergy. Conversely, 29 per cent of adults surveyed said they would likely give £1 if asked to ‘help a young person fight cancer’, but this ask, when put to eBay shoppers, came in as the fourth most popular.
And while nearly one in five survey respondents said they’d happily donate £1 to 'help small UK charities stay open and help local people', this ask fared extremely poorly in relation to other, more emotive asks of eBay shoppers checking out their purchases. It ranked the second-least popular choice of the 17 asks put to eBayers.
While the research concluded this shows that donors are more motivated by emotion than they like to admit, the authors also admitted that there could be slight variation down to eBay audiences perhaps behaving slightly different to that of a sample of the British public as a whole.
Top five eBay asks:
- Support the fight against prostate, testicular and bowel cancer
- Feed a malnourished baby for a week
- Help a nurse care for a terminally ill cancer patient
- Help a young person fight cancer
- Give a Kosovo child a pair of shoes and warm gloves that they can wear to school
Top five asks favoured by survey respondents:
- Help a young person fight cancer
- Help a nurse care for a terminally ill cancer patient
- Help small UK charities stay open and help local people
- Support the fight against prostate, testicular and bowel cancer
- Stop child trafficking for sexual exploitation and child labour
