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Why Do People Give? Charitable Giving, Volunteering, and Happiness

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Presentation on theme: "Why Do People Give? Charitable Giving, Volunteering, and Happiness"— Presentation transcript:

1 Why Do People Give? Charitable Giving, Volunteering, and Happiness
René Bekkers October 18, 2018, Stockholm

2 October 18, 2018 Stockholm

3 Thanks Co-authors: Arjen de Wit, Dave Verkaik, Danique Karamat Ali, Ashley Whillans, Michael Norton, and Paul Smeets Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm for suggestions on the interpretation of results The ministry of Security and Justice (V&J) and Education, Culture and Science (OCW) for funding the GINPS Jos van Hezewijk (Elite Research) for letting us use the HNW database October 18, 2018 Stockholm

4 Why do people give? People give (more) when:
They perceive a clear need need They are asked to give solicitation Costs are lower, benefits are higher costs/benefits People care about the recipients altruism Giving is rewarded socially reputation Giving reinforces their self-image self-rewards Causes match their values values Gifts are perceived as more effective efficacy Bekkers, R. & Wiepking, P. (2011). A Literature Review of Empirical Studies of Philanthropy: Eight Mechanisms that Drive Charitable Giving. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40(5): October 18, 2018 Stockholm

5 Does helping make people happy?
Helpers Private benefit € Intermediary organizations grants programs Recipients Public benefit October 18, 2018 Stockholm

6 Volunteering and Subjective Well-Being
Arjen de Wit René Bekkers Danique Karamat Ali Dave Verkaik Center for Philanthropic Studies Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

7 What is the impact of volunteering?
To what extent does volunteering increase subjective well-being? De Wit, A., Bekkers, R., Karamat Ali, D. & Verkaik, D. (2015). Welfare Impacts of Participation. Deliverable 3.3 of the project: “Impact of the Third Sector as Social Innovation” (ITSSOIN), European Commission – 7th Framework Programme, Brussels: European Commission, DG Research. October 18, 2018 Stockholm

8 Logic of Analysis The literature on volunteering clearly shows a higher level of well-being among volunteers. The exciting possibility emerges that volunteering may promote the well-being of participants. BUT…the higher level of well-being among volunteers may also be the result of a higher willingness to volunteer among citizens who have a higher level of well-being. In this case, pre-existing levels of well-being determine volunteer choices, but are not affected by them. October 18, 2018 Stockholm

9 Research Design In the absence of experimental data that randomize people into volunteering, we analyze changes over time. We first graph the development in the lives of citizens as they move into and out of volunteering. However, these changes could still reflect influences of omitted variables. Therefore, we apply fixed effects regression models to eliminate influences of stable characteristics of citizens. This is a conservative test. October 18, 2018 Stockholm

10 Six Longitudinal Panel Data Surveys
German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) / Understanding Society Swiss Household Panel (SHP) Giving in the Netherlands Panel Survey (GINPS) Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) Longitudinal Ageing Study Amsterdam (LASA) October 18, 2018 Stockholm

11 We rescaled all outcomes on a scale from 0 to 1.
In our analyses we use six large datasets covering fifteen countries in Europe. In total, we analyzed survey responses from different respondents. In all datasets, only respondents aged 18 and over who participated in more than one wave were selected. We rescaled all outcomes on a scale from 0 to 1. October 18, 2018 Stockholm

12 Six Longitudinal Panel Data Surveys
Years Responses Respondents German Socio Economic Panel (GSOEP) 451,053 56,360 British Household Panel Survey / Understanding Society (BHPS) 111,062 20,798 Swiss Household Panel (SHP) 126,638 16,628 Giving in the Netherlands Panel Survey (GINPS) 8,930 2,795 Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) 138,971 55,657 Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) 9,069 2,732 ALL 845,733 154,970 October 18, 2018 Stockholm

13 Measures Well-being Health GSOEP General life satisfaction (0-10)
Satisfaction with health (0-10) BHPS Satisfaction with life (1-7) Subjective health (1-7) SHP Satisfaction with life (0-10) Subjective health (1-10) GINPS n/a Subjective health (1-5) SHARE LASA CES-D depressive symptoms (reversed, 0-60) October 18, 2018 Stockholm

14 Results at a glance Well-being Health GSOEP + BHPS SHP GINPS SHARE
GINPS SHARE LASA October 18, 2018 Stockholm

15 Volunteers show higher well-being
October 18, 2018 Stockholm

16 Well-being over time October 18, 2018 Stockholm

17 Well-being over time October 18, 2018 Stockholm

18 First difference models (18+)
October 18, 2018 Stockholm

19 First difference models (55+)
In Europe In the Netherlands October 18, 2018 Stockholm

20 Well-being benefits increase with age
October 18, 2018 Stockholm

21 Well-being ‘effects’ in three models
October 18, 2018 Stockholm

22 Does giving make donors happy?
Private benefit € Intermediary organizations grants Match: x 2 programs Recipients Public benefit October 18, 2018 Stockholm

23 The Joy of Giving Evidence from a Matching Experiment with Millionaires and the General Population
René Bekkers – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Ashley Whillans – Harvard Business School Michael Norton – Harvard Business School Paul Smeets – Maastricht University Preregistration, materials, data, code, paper, this presentation: posted at

24 The Joy of Giving Which areas of the brain are active when money given to participants is taken from them to benefit a charity or when they give it themselves? 1. In all conditions giving was associated with activity in areas that are related to pleasure (caudate, right nucleus accumbens) 2. The activity is larger when the gift is voluntary n = 19 female Oregon October 18, 2018 Stockholm

25 No Joy of Giving n = 261 students of unknown origin October 18, 2018
Stockholm

26 What price do donors care about?
Their checkbook amount = what donors have to pay to make a gift The amount that the charity receives as a result of their gift = the impact of the gift With the match, we are increasing the amount the charity receives without additional cost to the donor. October 18, 2018 Stockholm

27 Matching: Who cares? Matches usually increase the amounts charities receive, and more so than mathematically equivalent rebates. Our impure altruism hypothesis was that matches would not increase the satisfaction of donors. Only pure altruists care about getting more money to the charity, even if it is for free. October 18, 2018 Stockholm

28 Design and analysis plan
We preregistered this study at Experiment conducted among a large population sample (n = 1,232) of participants in the 2015 Giving in the Netherlands Panel Survey (GINPS) And among a sample of 771 millionaires in the 2015 High Net Worth GINPS oversample October 18, 2018 Stockholm

29 Procedure: control group
After the survey, participants read: Among all participants in this survey we raffle five amounts of €100. If you are the winner, you can receive the amount in the form of a gift card, but you can also donate it to a charity of your choice. If you are one of the winners, would you like to: 1. receive €100 in the form of a voucher; 2. receive €50 in the form of a voucher, and give €50 to a charity; 3. donate €100 to a charity. Recipients were 12 popular charities in the Netherlands: Amnesty International - Doctors Without Borders (MSF) - Society for the protection of animals - Greenpeace - Netherlands Heart Association - Church in Action - National Cancer Foundation - Oxfam Netherlands - Stop Aids Now! – Unicef – Warchild - World Wild Life Fund - another charity, namely:……………………… October 18, 2018 Stockholm

30 The match After the survey, participants read:
Among all participants in this survey we raffle five amounts of €100. If you are the winner, you can receive the amount in the form of a gift card, but you can also donate it to a charity of your choice. Attention: the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam doubles the value of your gift to charity. If you are one of the winners, would you like to: 1. receive €100 in the form of a voucher; 2. receive €50 in the form of a voucher, and give €50 to a charity; the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam increases this amount by €50, so that he charity receives €100 3. donate €100 to a charity; the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam increases this amount by €100, so that he charity receives €200. Recipients were 12 popular charities in the Netherlands: Amnesty International - Doctors Without Borders (MSF) - Society for the protection of animals - Greenpeace - Netherlands Heart Association - Church in Action - National Cancer Foundation - Oxfam Netherlands - Stop Aids Now! – Unicef – Warchild - World Wild Life Fund - another charity, namely:……………………… October 18, 2018 Stockholm

31 Measuring the joy of giving
Post-test mood: After participants made their decisions, we asked: “Finally we have this question for you: how are you feeling at the moment?” Response options ranged from 1 (labeled ‘Very bad’) to 10 (labeled ‘Excellent’). October 18, 2018 Stockholm

32 Measuring the joy of giving
Pre-test satisfaction with life: During the survey, participants had responded to the question: “how would you evaluate your life in general on a scale from 1 to 10?”, with 1 labeled ‘very unhappy’ and 10 ‘very happy’. Mood benefits of giving: post-test mood minus pre-test satisfaction with life (r = .59) October 18, 2018 Stockholm

33 Giving in population sample
October 18, 2018 Stockholm

34 Giving by millionaires
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35 Amounts donated +4% +41% October 18, 2018 Stockholm

36 Happy givers October 18, 2018 Stockholm

37 Conclusions Happiness makes people give and volunteer.
Giving and volunteering does not make helpers much happier than they already were. We need experiments and stringent tests with panel survey data to eradicate selection bias October 18, 2018 Stockholm

38 Speculations Giving is more satisfying when it is more costly and provides a certain benefit to a close other. This makes giving money to charity less hedonically rewarding than keeping or giving to a specific other person. Mood benefits vary between donors: Effective altruists should care (more) about the impact of their gifts (to be tested). October 18, 2018 Stockholm

39 October 18, 2018 Stockholm

40 October 18, 2018 Stockholm

41 October 18, 2018 Stockholm

42 October 18, 2018 Stockholm

43 Methods Insights: Panel Data
Panel survey analyses of volunteering typically reveal selection effects but little causation. Trust makes people volunteer, but volunteering does not make them more trusting. Bekkers, R. (2012). Trust and Volunteering: Selection or Causation? Evidence from a Four Year Panel Study. Political Behavior, 32 (2): Van Ingen, E. & Bekkers, R. (2015). Trust Through Civic Engagement? Evidence From Five National Panel Studies. Political Psychology, 36 (3): October 18, 2018 Stockholm

44 Methods Insights: Experiments
Manipulations of the principle of care, empathic concern, and gratitude barely influence charitable giving. Dispositional measures of these constructs consistently predict generosity. Bekkers, R., Ottoni-Wilhelm, M., & Verkaik, D. (2015). Altruism, Warm Glow, and Charitable Giving: Three Experiments. Paper presented at the 3rd Science of Philanthropy Conference, Chicago, September 11-12, NDP (2009). Netherlands Donor Panel, September 2009. October 18, 2018 Stockholm

45 Unpublished? Published October 18, 2018 Stockholm

46 Contact: René Bekkers Center for Philanthropic Studies
Department of Sociology Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Blog:

47 Mood effects in population sample: control group
October 18, 2018 Stockholm

48 Population sample: match group
October 18, 2018 Stockholm

49 Millionaires: control group
October 18, 2018 Stockholm

50 Millionaires: match group
October 18, 2018 Stockholm

51 Yes, we have regressions
October 18, 2018 Stockholm

52 Gratitude Manipulation Check
October 18, 2018 Stockholm

53 Outcome: giving October 18, 2018 Stockholm

54 Outcome: giving October 18, 2018 Stockholm

55 Gratitute and giving results
Happy memories (0-1) .337 .100 .072 .055 -.221 Grateful memories (0-1) -.094 -.231 -.270 -.328 -.112 Optimism (1-4) .585 .238 .267 SWB (z) .455 .508 Gratitude (z) ***1.500 *.826 Joy of giving (z) ***1.989 Positive affect (z) .416 .296 *-.712 *-.811 Negative affect (z) **-.807 *-.675 -.359 -.428 Constant ***10.046 ***10.149 ***8.169 ***9.350 ***9.280 Adj. R Square -.001 .007 .008 .027 .069 *** p<.001; ** p<.01; * p<.05 October 18, 2018 Stockholm

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