Picturing donations: Do images influence conservation fundraising?

Abstract

Many environmental organizations use photographic images to engage donors and supporters. While images play a role in fundraising, visual framing remains understudied in the environmental field. Few real-world experiments have examined which types of images result in higher donations to biodiversity conservation. We examined the role of images in conservation fundraising through a public experiment at Zoomarine, a marine park located in southern Portugal. Zoomarine runs a program called Dolphin Emotions where visitors pay to learn about dolphin biology and to interact with dolphins. We placed a donation box and a large informational poster about the Marine Megafauna Foundation, a conservation partner, in the lounge of the Dolphin Emotions program, which is open to participants and their families. The text on the poster, which solicited donations for the Marine Megafauna Foundation, was held constant, while four different image conditions were tested: dolphins, ocean wildlife, children, and people staring out from the poster (i.e., “watching eyes”). Each image condition was displayed for three days at a time and was on display for at least seven randomly assigned three-day periods over the course of 91 days. 20,944 visitors passed the donation box and the four poster conditions during this time and a total of € 952.40 was collected. The differences in mean donations in € per visitor per 3-day period were not statistically significant, F(3, 25) = 0.745, p = 0.54. Thus, we did not find that different images had a significant influence on donations to conservation. This may be due to our choice of visual frames or to the use of a donation box, which is a passive fundraising channel. Future research should examine how visual framing influences donations in other public settings and should test the influence of other visual frames on philanthropic behavior.

Testing the influence of visual framing on engagement and pro‐environmental action

“…Other studies that have tested different images paired with donation boxes have also found no effect. An experiment at a marine park in Portugal found no effect on donations when a donation box was paired with posters featuring different images (e.g., images of a flagship species, of other animals, of children, or of watching eyes; Salazar et al, 2021). Veríssimo et al (2018) tested whether pairing images of different conservation flagship species with a donation box at Australian Geographic Society shops made a difference in donation amount and found that only the body mass of the animal pictured had a small influence on donation amount.…”

Conservation fundraising: Evidence from social media and traditional mail field experiments

“…However, there have been few realworld experiments focused on conservation fundraising. Offline, Salazar et al (2021) examined the impacts of photographic images on donation behavior at a marine park in Portugal and found no significant difference between four images: dolphins, ocean wildlife, children and watching eyes, while a field experiment at a Japanese mountain park by Kubo et al (2018) found that announcing the information on seed money was superior to sharing the amount of others' contribution to raise funds for the trail maintenance. Looking at online donations, Shreedhar (2021) found Facebook advertisement videos about wild dogs elicited higher traffic than those about elephants.…”

“…Offline, Salazar et al. (2021) examined the impacts of photographic images on donation behavior at a marine park in Portugal and found no significant difference between four images: dolphins, ocean wildlife, children and watching eyes, while a field experiment at a Japanese mountain park by Kubo et al. (2018) found that announcing the information on seed money was superior to sharing the amount of others’ contribution to raise funds for the trail maintenance.…”

Evidence for effective conservation fundraising: Comparing social media with traditional mailshot field experiments

“…However, despite the importance of the context in conservation practices, only a few real-world field experiments have been carried out. In terms of offline settings, for example, Salazar et al (2021) examined the impacts of photographic images on donation behavior at a marine park in Portugal and found no significant difference between four images: dolphins, ocean wildlife, children and watching eyes. Kubo et al (2018) carried out at a mountain park in Japan and explored the effects of announcing the information on donation behavior for the trail maintenance.…”