Recurring versus one-time donation requests: The toll on attracting donors

Non-profit marketers often design campaigns that ask donors to contribute recurringly. While past research has implied the benefits of giving recurring donations, across six studies using both archival and experimental data, we find convergent evidence that consumers are less attracted to contribute to a non-profit's recurring (vs. one-time) donation solicitations. Our results suggest that the heightened pain of giving from recurring (vs. one-time) solicitations mediates the effect. Furthermore, we find that the mediating effect of pain of giving attenuates for less frugal consumers, and that the negative effect of recurring (vs. one-time) solicitations on donation willingness mitigates when the solicitations ask for time (vs. monetary) donations. Finally, reconciling our findings with prior research on temporal framing, we find that the effect reverses when a total expected donation amount is salient. This research informs the unintended consequences of recurring donation requests and suggests practical interventions for practitioners.