Consumers' Perceptions of Nonprofit Solicitations: Some Preliminary Evidence on Framing and Price Effects

Abstract

This article presents the findings of a study examining the way in which nonprofit organizations raise funds through promotional product offerings. Prospect theory is used as a framework for describing two alternative framing scenarios: a product purchase verses a product gift in return for a donation. The experiment seeks to determine which framing scenario produces a greater likelihood that consumers will engage in a transaction with the organization across different transaction amounts. A significant interaction suggests the presence of a threshold effect. That is, a threshold, or monetary transaction amount, exists where all amounts below this threshold are considered so trivial that the frame of the transaction has no significant effect. The results suggest that for more trivial amounts, nonprofit organizations should frame the solicitation as a donation, but for higher requests consumers may be more likely to engage in the transaction when it is framed as a purchase.

KEYWORDS:

• framing
• promotions
• nonprofit
• price
• product
• fundraising