Discovering nudges for effective giving

Antilia is completing a DPhil in Economics at Oxford and is a co-founder of Good Wallet, an effective giving project. Her research focuses on the behavioural determinants of effective charitable giving, combining microeconomic theory and experimental methods to study how donors respond to different incentive schemes and choice architectures. 

The Problem

Despite the widespread availability of effective giving information, only a negligible portion of the funds donated worldwide go to expert-recommended effective charities. To date, the main approach implemented at scale to encourage effective giving has been the creation of education and pledging-focused organisations, like Giving What We Can (UK), Mieux Donner (FR), Doneer Effectief (NL) and others. However, for a variety of behavioural and psychological reasons, motivating effective giving through these means has its limits. It’s likely that, in the coming years, the growth in pledges and donations routed through the existing effective giving ecosystem slows down, as the pool of individuals these organisations can target reaches saturation. For this reason, it is important to develop ways to promote effective giving that reach beyond the typical EA base.

I am creating a new effective giving platform called GoodWallet that aims to do just that. The general philosophy behind the platform is to develop charitable giving solutions that are attractive to all donors, and then gently nudge their behaviour towards effective giving. In behavioural science, “nudging” means carefully designing a user’s choice architecture to influence their behaviour, whilst leaving their freedom of choice intact. Nudging is a much gentler approach than attempting to convince people through information or persuasion; therefore, our target audience is much broader than that of the standard effective giving organisations. However, how successful the project is crucially depends on the quality and reliability of the nudges we will implement.

Projects

Because nudges are embedded in the choice architecture of the platform, I will start by briefing the students on the current outlook for Good Wallet. Some of the main features we are considering at the moment are:

  • Donation tracking: allowing donors to record and revisit their past giving across websites and causes.

  • Portfolio of charities: enabling donors to create a “giving portfolio” of the charities they care about, enabling them to donate to multiple charities in one click.

  • Social and community features: users can donate to other users’ wallets, join giving communities, and track their joint impact. 

  • Structure search function (e.g. ability to filter by impact-aligned cause areas)

  • Donor identity profile: donors can express how they think about doing good by stating their giving philosophies, communities they identify with and pledges they may have taken.

Once students become familiar with our choice architecture, they are free to explore their own ideas for nudges or pick a research question below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GGWQFoKdMQYYYzZMCw-rIiyGwmD0cqV9DAr5x29oiLg/edit?usp=sharing

Outputs

Can be:

  • Final research report with (1) synthesis of potential psychological drivers and mediators and (2) actionable design recommendations for effective-giving platforms

  • Pre-analysis plan for an experiment (with potential co-authorship)

 Ideal Candidate

  • Interested in effective giving, economics, psychology or behavioural science - no prior expertise required!

  • Excited by the opportunity to shape the design of an upcoming giving platform


Apply now!