APPEALING to wealthy people鈥檚 sense of personal power rather than their community spirit seems to encourage them to give more money to charity.
Psychologists already knew that rich people value their individual ability to control events more than lower-income earners do, says Ashley Whillans at Harvard University.
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Appealing to this independent mindset , found Whillans and her colleagues. That work was published in 2017.
The team has now tested whether fundraising appeals framed in this way increased the generosity of wealthy graduates of an Ivy League business school in the US, whose average starting salaries were in excess of $100,000 per year.
The researchers sent letters to more than 12,000 alumni asking them to donate to the school.
The letters started with one of two sets of words to appeal for their support: 鈥淪ometimes, one person needs to come forward and take individual action鈥� or 鈥淪ometimes, one community needs to come forward and support a common goal鈥�.
Among the 4 per cent who donated, those who received the message that focused on individual action gave an average of $432. In contrast, those who got the more community-minded appeal contributed $270 on average ().
鈥淲e think that giving high-income earners a sense of control makes them want to give more鈥�
鈥淲e think that giving high-income earners a sense of control makes them want to give more,鈥� says Whillans.
She believes that fundraising organisations could use these findings to boost their revenue. 鈥淐harities often use messages that highlight how positive the action is, like, 鈥榠t鈥檚 so important to help the environment鈥�, but they may benefit from tailoring their messages to people鈥檚 self-interested motivations instead,鈥� she says.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淗ow to get rich people to donate more鈥�
