A BENEVITY LABS REPORT

Bridging theGoodness Gap
How expert-curated content influences altruistic behavior

Introduction
Data about a variety of giving habits tells us that people aren’t
actually as generous as they’d like to be with their time, attention
and money. As an example, while Americans think they should
be giving 6% of their income to support worthy causes, researchsays they’re actually only giving 3%1. The resulting disconnect
between people’s intention and action has created a $291 billion
Goodness gap, which represents a significant opportunity tomake a meaningful social impact. And it’s not just nonprofits
and their beneficiaries who miss out when we don’t give back asmuch as we intend.
Humans are hardwired to do good, so when we don’t do it, we
miss out on the oxytocin boost and the sense of purpose we
get when we work toward making the world a better place.
And with data that proves that engaging employees in Goodness
can reduce turnover by up to 57%, along with society’s
ever-increasing expectations of corporations to be a force forgood, it’s clear that there are tangible business benefits toinvesting in helping people become more of who they want to be.

How do we explain the gap and begin
to close it?
There are several theories that could explain why this gap exists.
One theory is that navigating a space crowded with nonprofits
who are dedicated to the same cause — but that don’t necessarily
offer the same impact — is confusing. Those looking to help
where they can, may simply not know where to start. But withsome meaningful guidance, would-be do-gooders may do more
and potentially even support more impactful organizations.

A Benevity Labs Report: Bridging the Goodness Gap

The gap could also be attributed to:Limited attention

The disconnect between
people’s intention and action
has created a

We lead busy lives and it can be challenging to makedecisions about how and where to give of ourselves
when so much else competes for our attention. Becauseof this, we miss out on important information about
relevant opportunities. In a workplace setting, employees
can be especially consumed with more urgent tasks orlooming deadlines, which just exacerbate the issue. Thisis especially true when major events shift our attention
to real-time needs within an altered environment ofincreased uncertainty for ourselves and our peers.

$291

A lack of social cues

billionWhile we may have a desire to do good, we’re not always
sure what’s the most effective and appropriate way to get
involved or take action. In other aspects of our lives, wehave the social cues we need to tell us what’s expected
and appropriate, but in the case of charitable behaviorwe’re often left on our own to figure out how, when or
where to give.

Goodness gap

Regret avoidance
When people decide to give their time, talent or hardearned money to a nonprofit, they want to know it will
be used appropriately. But it takes time for nonprofits
to earn a donor’s trust and confidence, and conflicting
messages in the media about how organizations are run
can be anxiety provoking. Those looking to get engaged
with a cause fear they’ll regret who they choose tosupport, so some of them avoid taking any action at all.

1ideas42, “Best of Intentions: Using Behavioral Design to Unlock Charitable Giving,” July 2018.

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The test: Would giving

behavior change if
meaningful guidancecame from an expert?

Benevity, the global leader in corporate purpose software,partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as well
as a large, global technology client company and ideas42,
a research and design nonprofit specializing in behavioral
science, to conduct an experiment. The group tested whether
the expert curation of “GiveLists” (curated lists of nonprofitorganizations) would influence engagement, donation rates anddonation volume. It was designed for U.S.-based employees atthe company who use the Benevity platform. The test was anopportunity to examine ways companies can help people become
more emotionally connected to and invested in the opportunity
to do good, bridge the gap between intention and action and,ultimately, amplify the overall effects of corporate purposeprograms. This test was part of a broader two-year study ofGiveLists run by the Gates Foundation and ideas42.

Hypothesis
We hypothesized that the expert curation of nonprofits
would increase individuals’ generosity and their likelihood tooffer support.
It was our expectation that leveraging a trusted and respected
expert would help validate a person’s decision to get involved,
helping to relieve doubt about which nonprofits to support andavoid regret over making the wrong choice. Because the expert
curation was presented online through a workplace giving
platform, and not in person, there was no explicit social pressureof face-to-face solicitation, which can lead to avoidance behavior
and feelings of guilt. And while the expert is well known, there’s
likely no personal relationship, meaning the participant feels lesspressure to act.

A Benevity Labs Report: Bridging the Goodness Gap

Definitions
GiveLists
GiveLists provide guidance by presenting expert-curated sets ofnonprofits within a specific cause area or theme (such as climatechange or hurricane relief). They include the following:•••

List topic: typically a cause area.
Expert curator: person, foundation or general expert.
Limited number of nonprofits: between three and eight.

Experts
Experts are a subset of influencers, who may also include
celebrities, executives, peers and other advocates. Expert
influencers can be anyone in the company who cares about any
cause. In this context, they were defined as people or foundations
with expert knowledge of a list topic. The degree to which experts
can influence target audiences is typically correlated with theirproven authority, education, experience and established trust.
Cause tile
Cause tiles are the buttons that employees (users) see on theExplore Causes page within their workplace giving platform (seevisual on page 4). Each contains a high-level cause category, suchas education or homelessness. In this experiment there were twoversions of the cause tiles: some that included an expert curationand some that did not. Users had the option to click on the cause
tiles to view the associated GiveList curated by an expert.
The company
A large, global technology company that conducted theexperiment with U.S.-based employees who use theBenevity platform.

3Methodology

CONTROL

The research team created two versions of the Explore Causes pagethat were shown through the company’s employee engagement
program for U.S. employees. Employees could access the page fromthe homepage of the platform.

The Test Examined:
Engagement

The pages were identical, except the treatment version included anexpert listed below the cause on the cause tile.

Whether a user on the Explore Causes page
within the company’s workplace giving
platform clicked on a cause tile in any
session within the experiment time frame.

The redesigned treatment page incorporated eight expert-curated
GiveLists, displayed to half of U.S.-based users (the treatmentgroup). The remaining users (the control group) saw the sameGiveLists, with the same causes and number of nonprofits, but
without any attribution to the expert. Users in both test groups
could click through each list to read a short description of theorganizations chosen by the expert and then make a donation.
Those in the treatment group also saw a brief description of theexpert when they clicked through to view a list.

Donation rate
Whether a user made a donation to one ormore of the nonprofits presented on theGiveLists or the broader range of causes
available on the workplace giving platform.

The test was launched during the company’s official Giving
Campaign in October 2018, and data was collected between
October 2018 and January 2019 for all U.S.-based employees visiting
their workplace giving platform. The anonymized and aggregateddata was then analyzed.

Donation amount
Average dollars donated per participant toany particular nonprofit in the experiment
as well as across the entire range of causes
available in the Benevity platform.

TREATMENTA Benevity Labs Report: Bridging the Goodness Gap4

Findings

CONTROLConversion Rate (% of Users)

-7.4%
53.9%

Donations per Donor

2.4 x

TREATMENT

Average Donation Amount

3.1x+63.2%$$$

46.5%$$Engagement

Donation rate

Donation amount

Click-through rates were slightly lower
for expert-curated causes

Donors gave more frequently to expert-curated causes

Donors gave higher donation amounts
to expert-curated causes

Surprisingly, users who saw the expert curation on the Explore
Causes page had a 7.4-percentage-point lower conversion
rate (click-through rate) on a cause tile. Those in the treatmentgroup clicked through 46.5% of the time, while users in thecontrol group clicked through 53.9% of the time.

A Benevity Labs Report: Bridging the Goodness Gap

Of those who clicked on a cause tile, both groups were equally
likely to make at least one donation; however, donors in thetreatment group made more donations on average. Donors
in the control group made an average of 2.4 donations perdonor, while donors in the treatment group made an averageof 3.1 donations per donor.

Those who saw the curated list gave 63% more dollars onaverage. Although the treatment group had lower engagement
rates, they made more donations overall. There was a 37.5%
difference between the total donation amount for the treatment group and the donation amount for the control group.

5Conclusion
The results of the test showing that initial engagement was lower wereslightly surprising. One theory to explain the marginally lower engagement
is that expert curation, in this context, created an additional step for thewould-be donor, which is cognitively taxing and perhaps impeded a splitsecond decision. Another theory is that employees already expect thefeatured content they see in their giving platform to be curated by experts —whether or not a name is attached — because of their company’s establishedconnections to nonprofits or the stances it has taken on social issues.
Nonetheless, expert curation does offer greater opportunity for impact
because it led to people giving more often and more generously. This tells
us that expert curation can play a role in modifying people’s behavior,influencing how you design your corporate purpose programs. Specifically,
these insights provide you with another way to have more impact on thecauses your people care about the most, while also helping your people aligntheir actions with their intentions when it comes to doing good.

Putting the data to work to power yourgiving program
The results of the test open up some exciting possibilities for integrating
expert curation into your company‘s corporate purpose program.
Before you explore expert-curated content, consider
whether your employee giving program enables people to:•••Easily access giving and volunteering opportunities
Choose which causes to support
View and support expert-curated GiveLists

A Benevity Labs Report: Bridging the Goodness Gap

The Potentialof Peer Influence
There is an opportunity for companies to deliveron the increasing expectation for brands to takeaction on societal issues (and engender more trust)by empowering employees to create and champion
opportunities for their peers to join them indoing good.
Social influence from peers, who also act as experts
and passionate advocates, can create a halo effectthat entices others to take action — think about
the power of peer reviews in making purchasing
decisions or peer recommendations for your next
TV series to watch. By empowering employees tocurate their own personal cause lists and sharewith their peers, companies can proactively
address some of the barriers causing the Goodness
gap (limited attention, lack of social cues, regretavoidance) while building a corporate culture that
fosters trust, empathy, connection and purpose.
Employees also benefit from the opportunity toincrease their personal and social impact in theirown unique way, as well as fulfill an innate desire todo good in the world.

$3520 MATCHED$6,575 PEER MATCH POOL

11 Peer Matchers

Did You Know?
Benevity’s employee engagement platform,
Spark, enables anyone from within thecompany to run a peer-led giving opportunity
for a cause they care about and inspirecolleagues to get involved by personallymatching their donations — for any amount,
big or small.
Data shows that Peer Matching encourages
52% of people to participate in their corporate
purpose programs for the first time.

6Actionable Ideas
Start by identifying your expert(s)Explore who the experts could be for your company. An expertisn’t just a well-known philanthropist or even your CEO — itcould be an employee within your company who is known to be
an authority or familiar with a cause because of a personal or
public connection or mission. Caring about a cause can often be
enough to position someone as “expert” within your company,
and their recommendation could come through quite simply
from a Peer Matching campaign that they may set up for a cause
or set of causes.
No matter who you choose, tell the story of why they’re
associated with a specific GiveList in a clear, compelling andsuccinct way. Or, better yet, let them tell the story themselvesby allowing them to publish communications related to their
GiveList or peer match. Using simple text, a powerful statement
or even a short and impactful video will go a long way inengaging people in the story and the cause. Be sure to offer
links to information that will offer more details about the expert
and bolster their credibility. Keep in mind that experts won’t
resonate with everyone, but by empowering more people to act
as experts, you will increase the likelihood of resonating withvarious groups within your employee population.

A Benevity Labs Report: Bridging the Goodness Gap

Try running an A/B test using the tools at
your disposal
To best understand how curation can impact the behaviors ofyour people, you’ll need to segment your target audience into
at least two groups. Do your best to select two random groups
from within your company (we recommend using a program
like Excel to remove personal bias). After you’ve chosen yourtwo groups, you’ll need to expose one group to the expertcurated content that provides specific ways for people to give,volunteer or take other positive actions (treatment group) andthe second group to the same opportunities, with no expert
association (control group). Communicating the opportunity to
the two distinct groups can be done via email or other internal
communication channels.
When it comes time to analyze the data, get as specific as you’dlike, depending on your level of interest and statistical skills.
For example, you may seek to understand the percentageof people who participated in the campaign, or if the level ofparticipation varied. If you’re able to layer in demographic
data, you could also examine how people supported the cause
differently according to job type, tenure, level, department,gender identity, seniority or age. The more detailed you arewith your analysis, the more you’ll be able to make data-driven
decisions that could improve your results and help to informfuture engagement strategies.

Experiment with targeted curation
To establish trends that will allow you to tailor yourexpert-curated giving opportunities to different subgroups,
you may need to run a series of A/B tests.
Once you have identified one or more subgroups who areinterested in certain types of content, you can create giving
or volunteering opportunities that are relevant to them. The
goal of this approach is to increase the amount of support for
nonprofits that you know people care about (based on data)
without running the risk of reducing overall engagement. You
could also try refining the message around the expert and theircurated GiveList or peer match to see if it helps generate aneven greater response.

Hungry for more
research-driven insights?
Check out Benevity Labs toread our latest studies andresearch into the subject ofcorporate Goodness.

7About ideas42
ideas42’s mission is to use the power of behavioral science to design scalable
solutions to some of society’s most difficult problems. ideas42 grew out of research
programs in psychology and economics at top academic institutions, and its workdraws on decades of experimental scientific research. ideas42 uses these insights todesign scalable ways to improve programs, policies and products in the real world.
ideas42 works with a wide range of partners, from leading foundations and nonprofit
organizations to government bodies and businesses. In short, anyone who wants tomake a positive difference to people‘s lives.

About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing
countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift
themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensurethat all people — especially those with the fewest resources — have access to theopportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington,
the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under
the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. For further information
please visit www.gatesfoundation.org.

A Benevity Labs Report: Bridging the Goodness Gap

Benevity, a certified B Corporation, is a leader in global corporate purpose software, providing theonly integrated suite of community investment and employee, customer and nonprofit engagement
solutions. A finalist in Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards, many iconic brands rely
on Benevity’s cloud solutions to power their purpose in ways that better attract, retain and engage
today’s diverse workforce, embed social action into their customer experiences and positively
impact their communities. With software that is available in 20 languages, Benevity has processedmore than 7 billion dollars in donations and 38 million hours of volunteering time, facilitated
340,000 positive actions and awarded over 1 million grants to 303,000 nonprofits worldwide. For
more information, visit benevity.com
benevity.com | goodness@benevity.com | 1.855.237.7875

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