Article: The science behind why people give money to charity- The Guardian
Hearts over heads:
Many people are aware that they should donate to the causes that have the highest impact, but facts and figures are less attractive than narratives. In a series of experiments, it was found that people are much more responsive to charitable pleas that feature a single, identifiable beneficiary, than they are to statistical information about the scale of the problem being faced.
Influenced by others:
Another of the major takeaways from the research in this area is that giving is fundamentally a social act. One study shows that people give significantly more to their university if the person calling and asking for their donation is their former roommate. Researchers found that when JustGiving donors see that the donor before them has made a large donation, they make a larger donation themselves.
It’s not just out friends and families who can influence us. Donors to an international development charity were more likely to respond to a match–funding campaign if they knew that that the match came from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation than if it came from an anonymous source.
Article: Emotive charity advertising, has the public had enough? – The Guardian
Co-founder of Regarding Humanity, Linda Raftree believes that adverts we’ve previously been used to seeing – of hopeless people in poverty – aren’t effective in solving the issues charities are seeking to address. They don’t empower or create sustainable change, she says.
She is part of the Rusty Radiator Awards panel – a Norwegian initiative which takes a comical look at charity videos that overdo stereotyping. – https://www.radiaid.com/
The awards were founded in 2013 after a tongue-in-cheek Africa for Norway video created by The Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund (SAIH) became a viral hit.-
“When we start to think that we are so substantially different from other people, it becomes easier to accept that people are suffering – we believe these images that are shown in advertising and fundraising campaigns create apathy rather than action,” he says.
Being humorous, creative, or both, without over-simplifying the issues and also showing the structural reasons behind poverty, is the way forward, he says. “Humour is universal”
“The public now responds much better if they can follow a concrete and tangible impact in a charity advert,” she says. “The most effective charity adverts feature just one person. If the advert shows just one single person, it feels more real and therefore has more of an impact.”
FREYA GEORGE LAUVC602 