Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. Economics Dept.
Advisor(s)
Sanval Nasim
Second Advisor
Michael Solomon
Abstract
The most effective charities are often more than a hundred times as effective as the average charity. However, top charities are not prioritized, and donation money is not used most effectively. To address this issue, it is crucial to understand why effective charitable giving is not prioritized. One factor identified in previous research is the limited access to cost-effectiveness information among donors. Our research explores whether providing individuals with different forms of information about charities leads to more effective donation decisions. Through an online RCT, individuals are separated into groups exposed to different types of information about two charities and asked to donate between the two. Specifically, we investigated whether people respond more strongly to information about overhead costs or to data on a charity’s effectiveness. We found that individuals donated more to charities with lower overhead costs but did not find statistically significant evidence that individuals donated differently when given information that a charity is more effective
Keywords
effective altruism, charity information, overhead charity, charity effectiveness, charity experiment, economics charity
Recommended Citation
Jia, Pride J., "The Relevance of Information on Effective Charitable Giving" (2025). Honors Theses. Paper 1514.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/1514