This paper examines the impact of payment choice on charitable giving
with a door-to-door fund-raising eld experiment. Respondents can donate
cash only, use debit only, or have both options. Cash donations are anonymous
whereas debit card donations are observed by the solicitor.
When debit replaces cash, participation drops by 87 percent. Especially
the number of donations smaller than 5 euro decreases significantly. When both
cash and debit can be used, almost all donors make anonymous cash donations;
revenues and participation rates decrease compared to the Cash-only
treatment. This suggests that most people’s giving is image-motivated.
JEL classification: C93; D64; H41; E42
Keywords: Payment choice, eld experiment, image motivation, choice avoidance