Ann Oper Res (2015) 230:153–168 DOI 10.1007/s10479-014-1623-5 Modeling the impact of donor behavior on humanitarian aid operations M. Ali Ülkü · Kathryn M. Bell · Stephanie Gray Wilson Published online: 13 June 2014 © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014 Abstract Whether in-kind or cash, coordinated help organizations such as the American Red Cross, count on donations to help those in need when and after disasters happen. Yet, it has been observed that the type (in-kind versus cash) and the quality of donations largely impact the success of meeting urgent demand in humanitarian operations. In particular, unsolicited items hamper the synchronization of logistical operations and hence may create more problems than solutions. This research sheds light on the behavioral and decision making aspects of a donor while developing analytical models of how that behavior can be influenced by soliciting a minimum amount of cash donation, which in turn mitigates the negative impact of unsolicited items. We investigate the literature on donor psychology and feed those extant findings to the analytical model. We provide explicit expressions for the optimal solicitation amount and the impact of that amount on maximizing the donor’s likelihood to donate cash, as opposed to in-kind items. Also provided are some execution insights through extensive sensitivity analysis. Keywords Humanitarian logistics · Behavioral operations management · Optimal donation solicitation · Prescriptive model · Disaster response and relief · Nonprofit 1 Introduction Disasters, both man-made (e.g. nuclear leakage) and natural (e.g, tsunami, hurricane, earth- quake), can have a devastating impact on the affected individuals and regions. Success- M. A. Ülkü (B ) Rowe School of Business, Dalhousie University, 6100 University Ave., Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada e-mail: ulku@dal.ca K. M. Bell · S. G. Wilson Department of Psychology, Capital University, 1 College and Main, Columbus, OH 43209, USA e-mail: kbell626@capital.edu S. G. Wilson e-mail: swilson@capital.edu 123