We study how donors decide about which charity to give to. To this end, we construct a theoretical model that clarifies the conditions under which the stand-alone benefit from giving, the charity price (i.e. the fundraising expenditure and overhead costs claimed by the charity providing services), and the information cost (i.e. the cost of information acquisition) inform giving decisions. We define the price of giving as the sum total of charity price and information cost. The model shows that giving decisions might be affected by a price–information trade-off—a condition where donors care about the charity price because they want their donations to maximise charitable output, but dislike searching for the charity price because it is costly. The literature is then reviewed to test the explanatory power of the theoretical model. The review provides evidence in favour of a price–information trade-off.

The year 1947 saw the opening of Oxfam’s first permanent charity shop on Broad Street in Oxford. It was the prototype of what was soon to become a national franchise of Oxfam shops and it marked the genesis of widespread popular engagement with charity in the form of consumption. Donations and purchases of goods in this second-hand shop space were not simply a financial means to a humanitarian end, these shops offered active engagements with the charity; engagements that shaped donor and shopper knowledge of the organisation and that cemented a particular form of charity participation. This interdisciplinary analysis contributes to an emerging body of historical and geographical scholarship that is exploring the intersection between charitable action and consumption by beginning to fill a lacuna of research on the development of charity shopping as a key form of popular philanthropic action.

This paper reports interest levels associated with twenty-three different phrasings of a request to leave a gift to charity in a will among 9964 survey respondents. Previous research suggests that a review of one’s life story may be an important component of bequest decision-making. Other findings suggest that mortality reminders may increase support for social norms and the pursuit of symbolic immortality. The attempts to reference symbolic immortality tested here were not effective. However, results supported avoiding extraneous death terms (“that will take effect at my death”) and using social norms (“many people like to leave a gift to charity in their wills”). The strongest support arose for the addition of the phrase “to support causes that have been important in their/your life/lives” to explain either the respondent’s or the social norm exemplars’ intent in making such a gift. Among common terms, “a gift to charity in your will” generated greater interest than substitute terms such as “bequest,” “leave a legacy” or “remember your favorite charities.”