Do charitable solicitations matter? A comparative analysis of fundraising methods Bar‹‚ s K. Yrük SUNY-Albany, Department of Economics September 12, 2010 Abstract The existing literature either treats fundraising as an aggregate variable by ignoring the ex- istence of several di/erent fundraising methods through which charitable contributions are gen- erated or focuses on the e/ectiveness of a particular fundraising method without making any comparison with alternative methods. Using biennial household surveys of charitable giving in the United States conducted from 1988 to 1999, which contain detailed questions on several fundraising methods, I rst document that returns to fundraising are considerably di/erent across alternative fundraising methods. Next, I investigate the factors associated with donorsresponsiveness to var- ious fundraising techniques. The results show that several observable characteristics of charitable donors can explain why some people are more responsive to particular fundraising techniques than others. Keywords: charitable giving, fundraising methods JEL classication: H39, L31, L82 Department of Economics, University at Albany, SUNY, 1400 Washington Ave., Albany, NY 12222. Tel: (518) 442-3175. Fax: (518) 442-4736. E-mail: byoruk@albany.edu. 1