This document summarizes a presentation on encouraging charitable giving in the workplace. It describes two experiments conducted with different companies that tested behavioral economics approaches to increasing donations. The first experiment found that switching the default enrollment for an annual donation increase program from opt-in to opt-out dramatically increased participation. The second experiment tested adding volunteers, fliers, and sweets at a investment bank and found sweets increased donations the most. The presentation concludes by asking attendees to design their own intervention to increase workplace giving based on behavioral insights.

1. The University of Bristol’s Festival of Social
Sciences and Law presents:
SCHOOLS CHARITY
CHALLENGE 2013
8 November 2013
Tweet @UobFutures #TF2013

2. Introduction
Sarah Smith
(University of Bristol)

3. The challenge
• How to encourage (more) people to give to
charity in the workplace
• Using insights from behavioural economics
• Drawing on experience of recent “giving trials”

4. What you will get from this
• Insights into
– behavioural economics
– applied economic research
• A “warm glow” from thinking about charity

5. Homo economicus
• Independent
• Rational
• Utility-maximising
Good 1
x1
U
Good 2
x2

6. How to get homo economicus to give more?
Other goods
x1
U
x2
Donation to charity

7. How to get homo economicus to give more?
Make it cheaper for people to give
Offer a match
Or a (tax) rebate
Other goods
x1
U
x2
Donation to charity

8. How to get homo economicus to give more?
Make it cheaper for people to give
Offer a match
Or a (tax) rebate
Other goods
x1 ’
x1
U’
U
x2
x2 ’
Donation to charity

9. Payroll giving schemes
• Allow people to give out of their gross (before tax)
earnings – which means giving up less of the other
things they want to buy
• Many firms offer a match on top of this
• But take up is low: <1% at the majority of firms with
payroll giving schemes

10. Behavioural Economics Insights
• Does not do away altogether with homo
economicus paradigm
• But makes different/ more realistic
assumptions about the way people make
decisions

11. Behavioural Economics Insights (1)
• Making rational decisions is a
costly activity
• People may not always have –
and/ or process – all the
relevant information
• Small processing/ transactions
costs have a big effect

12. Behavioural Economics Insights (1)
• Practical insights:
– The way options are
presented matters
– Simplifying choices can have
an effect on decisions
– Defaults (opt in/out)

13. Behavioural Economics Insights (2)
• People are social
– They care what other
people think
– They are influenced by
what other people do

14. Behavioural Economics Insights (2)
• Practical insights
– People respond to
information on what other
people have done
– Personal relationships matter
– Group dynamics are
important

15. Charitable Giving Experiments
Michael Sanders
(University of Bristol
And Behavioural Insights Team)

16. Experiments – why?
• If we observe the world around us, we can
learn a lot
• However, without a source of random
variation, we can’t tell if one thing causes
another.
• Random allocation – we expect two groups to
be the same.

17. Charitable Giving Experiments
• Two experiments
• Carried out in two very different workplaces
• Very quick examples of what can be done

18. Experiment 1
• Inflation erodes the value of donations
• Charities Trust offers a solution – 3% annual
increases, to keep the value of your giving
• Take-up quite low

19. Experiment 1
• Switch the default –
• Tick to opt in
• Tick to opt out
• Very simple intervention, which can be very
powerful

20. Experiment 1: Results
Enrollment into annual increases
60%
48%
40%
20%
6%
0%
Opt-in
Opt-out

21. Experiment 2
• Investment bank
• Asking people to give one day’s salary
• 63 Offices

22. Volunteers

23. Fliers

24. Sweets

25. Experiment 2: Results
Giving One Day’s Salary
20%
11%
5%
5%
Control Group
Fliers
0%
Sweets

26. The University of Bristol’s Festival of Social
Sciences and Law presents:
SCHOOLS CHARITY
CHALLENGE 2013
8 November 2013
Tweet @UobFutures #TF2013

27. The importance of giving in the workplace
Why choose payroll giving?
• Tax efficient
• Payroll giving is the most tax effective way for
employees to support charities and good causes
• Social and community engagement
• Giving in the workplace delivers the feel good factor
• Flexible
• Complete choice over the charities they donate to and
the amount

28. Engaging employees in workplace giving
• What works?
• Chocolate!
• Match funding
• The last 3 feet…
• What doesn’t work?
• Poor promotion/communication = lack of awareness
• A complicated/time consuming sign-up process

29. The University of Bristol’s Festival of Social
Sciences and Law presents:
SCHOOLS CHARITY
CHALLENGE 2013
8 November 2013
Tweet @UobFutures #TF2013

30. Now over to you
• Design an intervention to increase the level of
giving in the workplace
• Prepare a brief (5 mins presentation)
• Your idea will be judged on:
– Innovation
– Potential to increase giving
– Incorporation of behavioural economics insights

31. The context
• Retail company; 600 stores across the country
• 11,000 employees; 212 signed up to payroll giving
• Presentations at HQ (no visits to outlets)
• Company matches first month’s donation
• Company supports Unicef; employees can choose
which charity to give to

32. The University of Bristol’s Festival of Social
Sciences and Law presents:
SCHOOLS CHARITY
CHALLENGE 2013
8 November 2013
Tweet @UobFutures #TF2013