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In 2015, I was a co-founder of the Science of Philanthropy Initiative (SPI) at the University of Chicago, a $5m project that brought together academics and charities to conduct experiments that change our understanding of how we do philanthropy. As part of this project, we generated new grant funding for researchers in this space to conduct studies in partnership with practitioners to understand "what works" in charitable giving. Today, SPI runs an annual conference bringing together academics and practitioners to learn why people give and how to increase charitable giving in the developed world. Some of my research in this area is highlighted below.
Raising Generous Humans
Report for the Gates Foundation, 2025
As part of my consulting work, I recently wrote a report with the Gates Foundation on how to raise generous humans. This review combines my expertise in early childhood development and philanthropy and uses the existing literature to develop a framework for parents to teach children how to be generous. [ Read the report ]
Calling Donors to Thank Them Doesn't Make Them More Likely to Give Again
Calling Donors to Thank Them Doesn't Make Them More Likely to Give Again
📰 Read the article → The Conversation
📰 Read the article → Chronicle of Philanthropy
We conduct experiments with 500,000+ new donors to charities to understand the impact of a personal thank-you call on donor retention. Contrary to popular belief among fundraisers, we find that thank-you calls have no measurable impact on donor retention. Fundraisers should conduct experiments to learn what works - and what doesn't - to attract and retain donors. [ Read the paper. ]
Americans Don’t Agree on Whether the Poor Should Chip In or Do Work in Exchange for Aid
📰 Read the article → The Conversation
We explore how requiring recipients to contribute—either money or time—affects donations to a food aid program. It finds that donor support increases when recipients make small contributions, especially of time, but support drops when monetary contributions are too high. The results suggest that donors are motivated in part by a desire to screen for deservingness. [ Read the paper. ]
Early Childhood Education Shapes Generosity
We conducted the first study to examine the causal impact of early-childhood education on children’s social preferences. Children randomized into full-time preschool, a parenting program, or a control group were tested at ages 6-8 using incentivized experiments. Our findings show that early-childhood education significantly shapes social preferences, emphasizing the need for a broad approach in designing educational programs. [ Read the paper ]
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