Is “overhead” a tainted word? A survey experiment exploring framing effects of nonprofit overhead on donor decision

Date
2021
Language
American English
Embargo Lift Date
Committee Members
Degree
Degree Year
Department
Grantor
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Found At
SAGE
Abstract

Nonprofit overhead ratios (i.e. proportion of funds spent on fundraising and/or management) have long been used as a proxy for nonprofit efficiency. Prior studies find that donors negatively respond to charities with higher overhead. Using a survey experiment, we explore whether providing different types of information about overhead alleviates this donor aversion. When asked to choose between two organizations as donation recipients, donors preferred the organization with lower overhead. However, when presented with information that described the purpose of higher overhead as building long-term organizational capacity, an increased proportion of donors chose to give to the organization with higher overhead. Omitting the word “overhead” further increased the proportion of donors choosing the organization with higher overhead. This study adds to our understanding of overhead aversion and has practical implications for nonprofits that rely on voluntary private contributions to achieve their missions.

Description
item.page.description.tableofcontents
item.page.relation.haspart
Cite As
Qu, H. and Levine Daniel, J. (2021). Is “Overhead” A Tainted Word? A Survey Experiment Exploring Framing Effects of Nonprofit Overhead on Donor Decision. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 50(2), 397-419. DOI: 10.1177/0899764020959475
ISSN
Publisher
Series/Report
Sponsorship
Major
Extent
Identifier
Relation
Journal
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
Rights
Source
Author
Alternative Title
Type
Article
Number
Volume
Conference Dates
Conference Host
Conference Location
Conference Name
Conference Panel
Conference Secretariat Location
Version
Author's manuscript
Full Text Available at
This item is under embargo {{howLong}}