A restaurant field experiment in charitable contributions

The issue of how to best elicit charitable contributions has long been an important one for charitable organizations. Some recent studies have examined different schemes for eliciting contributions for public radio and maximizing revenue for commercial purposes. Our study is a pure field experiment that was conducted in a restaurant. We varied the level of suggested contribution on the jar at the cashier to see if this had an effect on the revenue received; in one condition, did not make any suggestion. We do find differences in revenue depending on the suggested amount, showing that there is scope for strategy in choosing how to appeal to the potential donors. The amount requested does affect revenue, but it is not a monotonic relationship. We also find that not naming a suggested amount fares poorly in terms of generating revenue.