How do you persuade people to donate to charity? It’s an important point for fundraisers, and consistency is key, according to a new study led by Dr Alex Genevsky of Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM), who found that people give more when the image and the wording both carry the same emotion. A sad image with text that has a sense of urgency, or an image of a smiling face with a hopeful message do better at encouraging donations than mixed signals from mismatched images and words, and these insights apply beyond the charity sector.
The study investigated how likely people were to donate generously if they were presented with a charity requests showing a person in either distress or happiness and accompanied by a positive or negative informative message. For example, "Your donations can save thousands from death by starvation" or "Your donation can ensure a healthy future for thousands". The researchers found that requests elicit the most giving when the text and image are matched. 'We found that charitable appeals are most effective when their emotional elements match in tone, whether positive or negative.”
Consistency is key
Fundraisers know the dilemma. Should they emphasise hope and opportunity, or show suffering and urgent need? Past research has indicated that both ways are effective. But Alex Genevsky’s contribution has been to investigate how images and messages work in combination, and to test those combinations in several ways. The main conclusion in his paper is that it’s not so much about choosing positive or negative framing, but making sure the elements are consistent.
In one part of the study, participants were shown donation requests with different combinations of emotional images and messages. They were given small hypothetical budgets, saw appeals that paired smiling or sad faces with either hopeful or urgent text, and then chose how much to donate. Across these experiments, one pattern kept returning. 'Donors gave more when the features of appeals were emotionally consistent,' says Genevsky. In short, a sad face with urgent wording led to more donations than a sad face with uplifting copy.
'Donors gave more when the features of appeals were emotionally consistent.'
dr. Alexander Genevsky
Associate Professor Marketing Management
Real money
Some of the study was done with real money. Participants got a budget of US$10 and could decide how much they would keep. 'We really wanted to include experiments with real donations, not only hypothetical ones. When people know their choice will actually give money to charity, their behaviour carries more weight, and the results are more reliable.'
In another part of the study, participants had their brains scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while deciding whether to donate. Earlier experiments had already shown that people reported feeling more positive when the image and message matched, even when both were negative. Brain scans confirmed this: consistent appeals activated the nucleus accumbens, the reward centre of the brain, and that activity predicted more donations. Genevsky says: 'The effect was explained by increases in positive emotional experience in response to consistent features that influence emotions or moods and activation in the brain’s reward centre.'
Practical advice, easily implemented
For fundraisers and marketers, the advice from Dr. Genevsky is practical and easy to implement – these insights apply beyond the charity sector, he says.
- Make the parts match: align the emotional tone of messages and visuals, and avoid combining a sad image with a positive message, or vice versa.
- Don’t treat the choice between hope and urgency as binary; consistency is more important than whether the appeal is framed positively or negatively. Both can work as long as they match.
- Check coherence before launch: test campaign materials for emotional coherence before rolling them out because small tweaks in wording or image choice can significantly increase donations.
'Our research shows that even small, inexpensive changes in how appeals are crafted can elicit greater generosity and hopefully help more people in need.'
dr. Alexander Genevsky
Associate Professor Marketing Management
The same principle applies in branding, advertising and communications for corporate social responsibility (CSR) where matching moods, emotions and messages can help improve clarity and create stronger engagement. This coherence that helps donors decide can also help customers and citizens respond to public-interest messages, sustainability updates or health guidance.
Big budget not required
Genevsky emphasises that these gains don’t require big budgets. Choosing a different photo or adjusting a headline so it matches the mood of the visuals can be enough to shift outcomes. 'Our research shows that even small, inexpensive changes in how appeals are crafted can elicit greater generosity and hopefully help more people in need.'
- Researcher
- More information
Read the full research report: The impact of affective congruence on charitable giving by Alexander Genevsky, Carolyn Yoon, Ting-Yi Lin, Steven D Shaw, Brian Knutson, in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
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