Why charities announce donations: a positive perspective

Charities frequently announce contributions of donors as they accrue. Doing so induces donors to play a sequential-move rather than simultaneous-move game. We examine the conditions under which a charity prefers such sequenti al play. It is known that if donors only value contributions through their effect on the total provision of a public good, then the charity will not a nnounce contributions sequentially. However, with more general utility func tions that include additional effects such as warm-glow or snob appeal, the charity may benefit from announcing contributions. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scien ce BY All rights reserved.