Having just received a pair of gloves from the Diabetes Wellness Foundation and a dog blanket from IFAW, I must refer again to incentives and specifically to an article in “Charity Funding Report” published in December by CaritasData.  It reports evidence to the effect that the inclusion of a pen with an appeal can bring a 25% increase in responses while in the case of a diary the improvement is in the order of 30% so that argument seems to be settled.  Perhaps gloves and dog blankets work as well but not with me.  The usual area of debate in this context is that some recipients of incentives experience feelings of guilt, embarrassment and other negative emotions.  My own view is that these charities are doing what they consider to be best to raise both funds and the profile of their causes.  Surely we all have much more personal reasons for feeling guilty and embarrassed!

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