“Even a Penny Will Help!”: Legitimization of Paltry Donation and Social Proof in Soliciting Donation to a Charitable Organization

“Even a penny will help!” is a donation solicitor's effort in legitimating paltry donations in hopes of gaining higher compliance. This study reexamined the effect of Legitimization of Paltry Donation (LPD) in combination with Social Proof (SP) strategy. Participants were given one of four donation soliciting messages: simple request (control), LPD, SP, and LPD/SP. Compliance rate and size were examined through both the survey experiment and the field experiment. The LPD/SP condition yielded the highest rate of compliance both in the survey and field studies, followed by the LPD condition, the SP condition, and the control condition. As for the donation amount, results were not consistent across the two studies. Implications and limitations of the study were discussed.

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