Charitable Giving and Cooperation

美国人每年向慈善机构捐赠大量资金，帮助数百万人获得工作，并为更多人提供服务。不幸的是，经济低迷增加了对慈善服务的需求，同时逆转了原本稳步增加的捐赠。因此，许多组织现在资金紧张，我们需要更好地了解人们为什么捐款，以及我们如何鼓励他们捐款更多，这一点比以往任何时候都更加明显。这项提案提出了三个不同的研究项目，旨在提高我们对慈善捐赠的理解。第一个项目开发了一种新的方法来检验实验实验室中的自愿捐款，第二个项目使用这种方法来研究筹款技术，第三个项目扩展了目前关于合作行为中的性别差异的研究，表明非营利组织可能受益于不同性别的募捐策略。智力优势：三个拟议的项目都将表现出显著的智力贡献。首先，开发了一种在实验实验室中测试慈善捐赠的新方法并进行了测试。所提方法的理论特征不仅优于标准方法，初步结果也表明它更透明，对行为错误不那么敏感。因此，这项研究将提供重要的方法论贡献。第二个项目使用这种新方法来研究中央筹款策略。这些研究将阐明现有慈善捐赠理论的经验相关性，并将为新模型的发展提供指导。尤其需要确定的是，在什么情况下，筹款人可以或不能受益于向捐助者通报迄今已捐款的数额。虽然最近的研究表明公告是有益的，但这项研究确定了一系列情况并非如此，第三项研究合并了关于合作和竞争中的性别差异的文献。考察在竞争压力下合作行为的性别差异，将确定当合作行为带来社会利益时，男性更强的竞争动力是否会有害。更广泛的影响：拟议的工作将提高我们对慈善捐赠以及最有可能成功筹集资金的机制的理解。这一结果将使从业人员以及非营利服务的捐助者和接受者感兴趣。虽然这项关于合作和竞争行为中的性别差异的研究提供了关于筹款人如何从男女之间不同的募捐策略中受益的见解，但它也将增进我们对劳动力市场性别差异的理解。虽然人们注意到男性更具竞争力，这可能有助于解释为什么他们更有可能担任最高管理职位，但拟议的研究可能表明，在合作环境中，在竞争中取得成功的动力可能会付出巨大的代价。

Americans contribute substantial amounts to charities every year, helping secure jobs for millions of people and services to many more. Unfortunately the economic downturn has increased the demand for charitable services and simultaneously reversed the otherwise steady increase in giving. As a result many organizations are now strapped for funds, and it is clearer than ever that we need to better understand why people give and how we can encourage them to give more. This proposal presents three different research projects which aim to improve our understanding of charitable giving. The first develops a new method for examining voluntary contribution in the experimental laboratory, the second uses this method to study fundraising techniques, and the third extends current research on gender difference in cooperative behavior suggesting that non-profits may benefit from varying solicitation strategies by gender.Intellectual merit: The three proposed projects will each present a significant intellectual contribution. First, a new method for testing charitable giving in the experimental laboratory is developed and tested. The theoretical characteristics of the proposed methods are not only superior to standard methods, initial results also suggest that it is more transparent and less sensitive to behavioral error. Thus the study will provide an important methodological contribution. The second project uses this new method to study central fundraising strategies. These studies will shed light on the empirical relevance of existing theories on charitable giving and will provide guidance for the development of new models. Of particular interest will be to determine under what circumstances fundraisers do or do not benefit from informing donors of the amount of money that has been contributed to date. While recent research suggests that announcements are beneficial the study indentifies a series of cases where this is not the case The third study merges the literatures on gender differences in cooperation and competition. Examining gender differences in cooperative behavior under competitive pressure, it will be determined if the stronger competitive drive for men may be detrimental when there are social gains from cooperative behavior. Broader impact: The proposed work will improve our understanding of charitable giving and of the mechanisms that are most likely to succeed in raising funds. The results will be of interest to practitioners as well as to donors and recipients of non-profit services. While the study on gender differences in cooperative and competitive behavior provides insights on how fundraisers may benefit from varying the solicitation strategies between men and women it will also improve our understanding of gender differences in the labor market. While it has been noted that men are more competitive and that this may help explain why they are more likely to hold top managerial positions, the proposed study may demonstrate that in cooperative settings the drive to succeed in competitions may come at a significant cost.