Examining Donor Preferences in Aiding Individuals Experiencing Homelessness

Last registered on December 09, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Examining Donor Preferences in Aiding Individuals Experiencing Homelessness
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015372
Initial registration date
February 13, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
February 20, 2025, 5:03 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
December 09, 2025, 3:12 PM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Husnain Ahmad
Affiliation
The University of the South
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Jonathan Oxley
PI Affiliation
Georgia State University
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2025-02-20
End date
2026-06-30
Keywords
Behavior, Lab
Additional Keywords
Philanthropy, Giving
JEL code(s)
N30
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The literature on philanthropic giving highlights a preference for proximity, in line with the sentiment that "charity begins at home." We wish to study if this preference extends to charitable giving in support of the unhoused. Homelessness is considered a significant social issue, but programs designed to support unhoused individuals have consistently faced hurdles, especially those motivated by ``NIMBY-ism'', where by people support these programs in principle but do not want to them to be located in close proximity to their own area. Furthermore, charitable
giving in this domain can be both formal (i.e. giving to organizations) or informal, and we wish to understand if the type of recipient effects
donor preferences. We aim to answer these questions by deploying a simple 2x2 lab experiment, using a simple dictator game, where players can donate money they previously earned through a real effort task.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ahmad, Husnain and Jonathan Oxley. 2025. "Examining Donor Preferences in Aiding Individuals Experiencing Homelessness." AEA RCT Registry. December 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15372-1.1
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We change recipient characteristics across our 4 treatments, using a 2x2 design.
Intervention (Hidden)
We are testing to determine the preferences of donors when giving to homeless individuals based on two characteristics, formality of giving (giving to an individual experiencing homelessness vs giving to a homeless resource center) and proximity of location (estimated by distance to the laboratory, using Atlanta's natural and colloquial division of inside the I-285 perimeter vs outside of the I-285 perimeter). Due to the literature on donor behavior indicating that US donors prefer formal and local giving, we have two orthogonal treatment groups: informal giving (individual experiencing homelessness) and further proximity (outside of the I-285 perimeter), and we deploy a 2x2 design across the two.
Intervention Start Date
2025-02-20
Intervention End Date
2026-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Probability of donation and magnitude of donation, differences across treatments.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Heterogeneity across demographic variables.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We deploy a simple experiment, with two stages. First, subjects play a real effort task (counting 0's matrix) to earn money. Once complete, in stage 2 they are presented with the option to donate some of that money to a charitable cause. This is followed by a post-experimental demographic survey.
Experimental Design Details
The second stage varies across our treatments arms. We have two orthogonal treatments; 1) formality and 2) proximity. We deploy a 2x2 experiment, which yields 4 treatment arms.
Randomization Method
In lab with order of arrival.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1
Sample size: planned number of observations
Up to 750 subjects
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
up to 187 per treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Georgia State University IRB
IRB Approval Date
2024-10-02
IRB Approval Number
H25156
IRB Name
University of the South IRB
IRB Approval Date
2024-10-24
IRB Approval Number
2247100-1
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials