Charities to appeal to self-interest of donors

A study found that people are more willing to donate when a charity appeals to the benefits the donors will receive than to altruism.

Researchers mailed postcards encouraging randomly assigned families to donate money to charity. The postcard either highlighted the benefits to others or the benefits to themselves. Those who received the postcard promoting self-benefits were 6.6 percent more likely to give and gave 23 percent more on average.