Abstract

Charities depend on individuals’ donations as a main source of revenue. Although there is extensive research on one-time donations, there is a lack of research on recurring charitable giving. Since retaining donors is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones, charities would benefit from better understanding tactics that help increase their donors’ lifetime value. One such tactic is to express gratitude, by sending thank-you notes to donors. However, the effects of thank-you notes on charitable giving are under-researched. The relationship marketing and the donor retention literature both suggest that donors should respond favourably to receiving a thank-you note, but related empirical evidence has provided mixed results. I investigated the effects of thank-you notes on subsequent donations, including their message content (i.e., includes the direct impact on beneficiaries vs. not) and the medium through which they were sent. I conducted three online experiments where I compared the effects of two types of thank-you notes (i.e., basic vs. detailed messaging) to that of a neutral stimulus (i.e., tax receipt), and of two formats (i.e., letter vs. email). I found that the effects of thank-you notes are complex, as there were no direct effects of thank-you notes on attitudes towards the charity and repeat donation amount, but there were indirect effects through two mediators (i.e., perceived effectiveness of the donation and positive emotions towards donating again). A thank-you note’s medium also moderated their effects and had a more consistent impact on attitudes than on donation intentions.