National Giving Campaigns in the United States

Abstract

This study presents a narrative history and quantitative analysis of national campaigns in the United States, and analyzes how successful campaigns provide entertainment, foster empathy, and develop a national peer group with norms and networks that encourage giving. Our historical survey found that charity telethons flourished in the 1960s and 1970s, but changes in tax regulations and competition from other networks and cable television led most of them to discontinue operations in the 1980s and 1990s. In recent years, Internet and text messaging fundraising have become important, but benefit concerts continue to generate a significant percentage of total revenues. In our quantitative analyses, we found that campaigns for natural disasters raised more money than most campaigns for human-made disasters, and domestic campaigns brought more donations than international ones. Media attention, fundraising expenditures, and economic growth all correlated positively with donations, as expected, but fundraising events did not increase media coverage of disasters.

Feed the world or help the heroes? Exploring how political attitudes influence charitable choice

“…This has merit, given previous research pointing to an individual's political allegiances and policy attitudes influencing donation choices (Atkinson, 2009;Brooks, 2004), with Wiepking (2010) suggesting donors with liberal, left-leaning political attitudes being inclined to support international initiatives. In contrast, feelings of national group membership identified through focused-group research (Stevenson & Manning, 2010) and personal identification with charity beneficiaries (Einolf et al, 2013) underpin relatively greater donor support for charities with domestic outcomes, supported significantly through media exposure and investment in fundraising. Political attitudes, alongside specific sociodemographic characteristics have been identified as relevant to whether an individual chooses to support international causes ahead of domestic alternatives with 'political awareness' being highlighted (Rajan et al, 2009).…”

Does Charity Begin at Home? National Identity and Donating to Domestic Versus International Charities

“…Donors feel a moral obligation to assist co-nationals (Stevenson and Manning 2010), which should lead to increased donations for domestic causes (Einolf et al 2013). The idea that donor preferences may be driven by membership of and attachment to national groups aligns closely with notions of national identity.…”

“…Stevenson and Manning (2010) have previously acknowledged that membership of national groups may relate to charitable giving. It has been argued that donors feel greater empathy towards beneficiaries they personally identify with (Einolf et al 2013). Such a ''sense of fit'' (Sargeant and Woodliffe 2007) with beneficiaries may arise from nationality, one of the strongest forms of ingroup attachment (Schatz et al 1999).…”

International media coverage promotes donations to a climate disaster

“…Brown and Minty (2008) showed that both the number of minutes of nightly news coverage and the number of words dedicated to print news of the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December 2004 were positively correlated with the value of donations received by five major relief organisations. Einolf, Philbrick, and Slay (2013) also report a positive correlation between the extent of media coverage of 19 national fundraising campaigns in the United States and the amount of money they raised. Together, these studies demonstrate that fundraising outcomes will be positively associated with the extent of media coverage a disaster receives—as long as people are paying attention to the news coverage (see Bennett and Kottasz, 2000; Martin, 2013).…”