Friday night helping out on the Salvo's bus

So just got home from helping out on the Salvo's bus. This is an amazing community program organised by the one and only salvation army. They have this state of the art bus with computer terminals +internet, xbox consoles, playstations and a full BBQ kitchen which serves food for dozens of kids every night. I was helping out with set up and serving up the burgers...we would have seen close to 100 burgers roll out the door! was packed!

Speaking with some of the kids there it really is amazing what the bus means to them. It is a place to meet, a safe location to relax. It gives them something to eat and drink and ultimately allows them to connect with youth workers and the like to help them. I met this little 9yr old called Sarah who has just been squatting in abandoned buildings around Melbourne over the last year! It is truly shocking.

After the bus I sat down with my DayEight Cap on to chat with Brad and Brenden (the two gents that are the force behind the bus and some of the Salvation army's youth programs in the city). We began talking about a new strategy to give struggling kids additional opportunities. I suggested we bolt on a youth skills institute into the 69 bourke street drop-in centre + the bus. This would involve getting musicians, artists and designers giving up their time to apprentice kids in their skill. By doing so it would give the kids an opp. to learn to play guitar/dj/graphic design/sing/whatever and give them a path of future success to build on.

Brad loved the idea and it looks like DayEight will partner with the Salvos to implement this from june!

Now all that is left is finding a team and getting moving!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone out there reading this, please email me (matt@dayeight.com.au) or twitter me (@donazzan) letting me know if you are interested in getting involved.

‘Show me the money’ – The effects of ...

‘Show me the money’ – The effects of refunds and rebates on donations to fundraisers. 3 mins

The Elevator Pitch
•    Lab Experiment
•    Looking at charitable fundraisers
•    Studies the impact on donations of offering refunds and rebates to donors in the event that a fundraiser raises less or more than the target amount
•    Motivation: to help charities design fundraisers that maxamise funds raised

Key Terms
•    Voluntary Contribution Mechanism (VCM)
•    Provision Point Mechanism (PPM)
•    Refund
•    Rebate

Motivation of study
•    The provision of public goods are essential to our modern economy
•    A large array of public goods are provided through voluntary contributions
•    Voluntary contribution mechanisms suffer from free-riding - leading to under-provision of public goods
•    Mechanisms that are proven to reduce free-riding are valuable to society because they increase the provision of public goods towards an optimal level







Literature Review 3 mins

Bagnoli & Lipman 1989
•    Game Theory model of giving
•    Suggested fundraiser which best mitigates free-riding: a provision point mechanism (PPM) with refund and rebate


List & Lucking-Reiley (2002)
•    Tested Bagnoli & Lipman’s model in the field
•    Found PPM with Refund significantly increased donations vs. open request for donations


Marks & Croson (1998)
•    Tested Bagnoli & Lipman’s model in the lab
•    Looked at the impact on giving of different rebate rules on a PPM with Refund
•    Utilisation Rebate
•    Proportional (cash) Rebate
•    No Rebate
•    Found results consistent with Bagnoli & Lipman
•    Donations under Utilisation Rebate significantly higher than No rebate
•    No difference between Proportional Rebate and No Rebate









My Study 3 mins

Aims
•    Look at the impact of rebates in the field
•    Purpose is to determine whether Marks & Croson’s findings can be generalised outside of the lab
•    By doing so improve the field picture regarding Bagnoli & Lipman’s predictions about voluntary contributions

Hypotheses
•    A PPM + Refund fundraiser which has a utilisation rebate will raise more funds than a fundraiser with a proportional (cash) rebate
•    A PPM + Refund fundraiser (regardless of rebate) will raise more funds than a fundraiser with no refund

Design
•    Partner with a charity (Life Goes On)
•    Allow them to conduct three separate fundraisers
    o    Fundraiser 1: No rebate or refund
    o    Fundraiser 2: Refund + Proportional Rebate
    o    Fundraiser 3: Refund + Utilisation Rebate
•    Receive De-personalised data from charity
•    Number of prospective donors that donated, and the amount they donated











Progress, Plans and Questions 1 min

My Progress to Date
•    Literature Review
•    Study Design
•    Secured in-principle support of Life Goes On
•    In discussion with The Salvation Army and Oak Tree to also involve them in the study

My Proposed Next Steps
•    Ethics Approval
•    Confirm involvement of The Salvation Army and The Oak Tree Foundation
•    Allow charities to conduct their fundraisers
•    Collect de-personalised data & conduct analysis


Questions I Have
•    What are your thoughts regarding the ethics approval process - and knowledge of past studies
•    What are your thoughts on the statistical tests we should use?
    

My first Blog Post

Ok...so....the first blog post....and with it the sudden realisation that one is about to embark on another act of online narcissism.

Ahhh well....its too late now.

“I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity”

- Diana Vreeland