What is it about?
It is not clear whether repeated exposure to a charitable appeal message leads to an increased willingness to donate to charity. We explored this issue via four experiments in which our research participants made real-money donations. We found that message repetition did not influence the decision to donate or the amount donated, but we did find that recent exposure to an appeal message does increase donations.
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Why is it important?
We found that the willingness to donate and the amount donated can be increased by minimising the time between exposure to an appeal message and the opportunity to donate. We also found a strong relationship between donations and memories of the appeal message, suggesting that charity appeal message should be designed to be more memorable.
Perspectives
We hope this article helps organisations to developing messaging strategies that elicit donations and prosocial behaviours more effectively and efficiently.
Ian Dawson
University of Southampton
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The strategic timing of charity appeals: how message scheduling shapes donation decisions, Management Decision, February 2026, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/md-02-2025-0294.
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