EXPRESS: Clarifying Individual Contributions: The Divisibility-Appeal Effect in Fundraising

Organizers often strategically design numerical information in fundraising campaigns to appeal to contributors with divergent preferences. The current research highlights the importance of jointly considering the goal amount and the requested amount in campaign design, and uncovers a “divisibility-appeal effect,” whereby consumers are more likely to contribute when the campaign’s goal amount is perceived as easily divisible by the requested amount. Seven studies, including field, secondary data, and lab experiments, provide convergent evidence for this effect and clarify its underlying mechanism: Fundraising appeals with high (vs. low) divisibility between the goal and requested amount lead to greater perceived clarity of individual contribution toward the fundraising goal, which in turn fosters consumers’ motivation to pursue the collective goal. These findings demonstrate the influence of nuanced numerical signals in collective action contexts and highlight how consumers’ numerical cognition can be effectively utilized in real-world applications to promote the provision of public goods.