We conducted two experiments on PayPal’s Give at Checkout feature to learn about the effect of 1) information about charity outcomes on donations, and 2) exposure to these point-of-sale microgiving requests on subsequent giving. In this “impulsive” giving context, quantifying the charity’s outcome generates positive treatment effects, larger than those for a narrative. Third-party validation can decrease giving when added to the quantified outcome treatment, and has at most small effects relative to no information. The second experiment finds neither crowd-in (e.g., via habit formation) nor crowd-out (e.g., via budgeting) from these microgiving requests on later donation behavior.
