When Helping Hurts: Donor Behavior in Post-Disaster Material Convergence

Abstract

Following a disaster that results in a humanitarian crisis, media coverage of the event is frequently followed by surplus donations of goods to charitable organizations. This flow of donations, a postdisaster phenomenon termed material convergence, often consists of large quantities of unsolicited and unwanted items that disrupt the distribution of more urgently needed goods. In this study, we conduct an experiment to evaluate whether this problem can be mitigated by media reports on the benefits of donating cash instead of goods. We find that such reports can significantly increase the proportion of cash donations, potentially reducing the material convergence problem.

Keywords: Charitable Giving, donations, material convergence