scholarly journals Is the Supply of Charitable Donations Fixed? Evidence from Deadly Tornadoes

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-398
Author(s):  
Tatyana Deryugina ◽  
Benjamin M. Marx
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Internal Revenue Service ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Charitable Donations ◽  
Internal Revenue ◽  
Service Data

Do natural disasters increase charitable giving or simply reallocate a fixed supply of donations? We study this question using Internal Revenue Service data in the context of deadly tornadoes. We find that among zip codes located in the same state but more than 20 miles away from a tornado’s path, donations by households increase by about $2 million per tornado fatality. We find no negative effects of tornado fatalities on donations to charities located in these zip codes. The results imply that giving in response to new needs need not come at the expense of other causes. (JEL D64, L31, Q54)

Tax Practitioner Credentials and the Incidence of IRS Audit Adjustments

2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy A. Hite ◽  
John Hasseldine
Keyword(s):  
Random Selection ◽  
Internal Revenue Service ◽  
Internal Revenue ◽  
Tax Returns ◽  
Selection Of

This study analyzes a random selection of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) office audits from October 1997 to July 1998, the type of audit that concerns most taxpayers. Taxpayers engage paid preparers in order to avoid this type of audit and to avoid any resulting tax adjustments. The study examines whether there are more audit adjustments and penalty assessments on tax returns with paid-preparer assistance than on tax returns without paid-preparer assistance. By comparing the frequency of adjustments on IRS office audits, the study finds that there are significantly fewer tax adjustments on paid-preparer returns than on self-prepared returns. Moreover, CPA-prepared returns resulted in fewer audit adjustments than non CPA-prepared returns.

The Effects of Capital Campaigns on Local Nonprofit Ecologies

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 645-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Woronkowicz
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Internal Revenue Service ◽  
Arts Organizations ◽  
Natural Distribution ◽  
Capital Campaign ◽  
Internal Revenue ◽  
Capital Campaigns ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Distribution Of Resources ◽  
Nonprofit Arts

When charities launch capital campaigns, they hope to attract large amounts of resources in a relatively short period of time; however, other charities in the area are likely to see such campaigns as disruptive to the natural distribution of resources to area nonprofits by disproportionately directing area donations to a single organization. This study seeks to understand the effects capital campaigns have on both the fundraising performance of other nonprofits and the makeup of a local nonprofit ecology. The analysis uses data from a randomly sampled set of nonprofit arts organizations that had capital campaigns for facilities projects between 1994 and 2007 and Internal Revenue Service Form 990 data on 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organizations in each county. The results illustrate that a capital campaign positively affects the fundraising performance of other charities in a local nonprofit ecology, but that campaigns decrease the size of a local nonprofit ecology.

Self-Interested Giving: The Relationship Between Conditional Gifts, Charitable Donations, and Donor Self-Interestedness

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Chao ◽  
Geoffrey Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Decision Analysis ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Charitable Donations ◽  
Prosocial Motives ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Other Regarding ◽  
The Relationship

Nonprofits regularly use conditional “thank you” gifts to entice prospective donors to give, yet experimental evidence suggests that their effects are mixed in practice. This paper uses multiple laboratory experiments to test when and why thank you gifts vary in effectiveness. First, we demonstrate that although gifts often increase donations to charities that donors did not rate highly, many of the same gifts had no effects or negative effects for charities that prospective donors already liked. We replicate these findings in a second experiment that uses a different range of charity and gift options as well as different measures of participant perceptions of a charity. We also find that making gifts optional, as is common in fundraising campaigns, does not eliminate these negative gift effects. In additional experiments, we directly test for donor motives using self-report and priming experiments. We find that thank you gifts increase (decrease) the weight that donors place on self-interested (prosocial) motives, leading to changes in donation patterns. Altogether, our results suggest that practitioners may find gifts more useful when appealing to donors not already familiar with or favorably inclined to their charity, such as during donor acquisition campaigns. They may be less useful when appealing to recent donors or others who already favor the charity, in part because the gift may activate mindsets or norms that emphasize self-interested motives instead of more prosocial, other-regarding motives. This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, decision analysis.

scholarly journals The watching eyes effect on charitable donation is boosted by fewer people in the vicinity

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-12
Author(s):  
Ryo Oda ◽  
Ryota Ichihashi
Keyword(s):  
Field Study ◽  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Prosocial Behaviors ◽  
Charitable Donation ◽  
Charitable Donations ◽  
Large Groups

Previous field experiments have found that artificial surveillance cues facilitated prosocial behaviors such as charitable donations and littering. Several previous field studies found that the artificial surveillance cue effect was stronger when few individuals were in the vicinity; however, others reported that the effect was stronger in large groups of people. Here, we report the results of a field study examining the effect of an artificial surveillance cue (stylized eyes) on charitable giving. Three collection boxes were placed in different locations around an izakaya (a Japanese-style tavern) for 84 days. The amount donated was counted each experimental day, and the izakaya staff provided the number of patrons who visited each day. We found that the effect of the stylized eyes was more salient when fewer patrons were in the izakaya. Our findings suggest that the effect of the artificial surveillance cue is similar to that of “real” cues and that the effect on charitable giving may weaken when people habituate to being watched by “real” eyes. 

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