This discussion came up, and I was hoping you may be able to direct me to some resources I can share with her to make the internal case for ask amounts in appeals. Thanks for anything you can pass along!

I have a difficult time convincing that specific ask amounts work. Am I completely off base?

Including a suggested ask amount is considered a fundraising best practice. As such, it’s included in the fundraising letter checklist.

There is scientific research that shows that including a suggested donation amount gets more people to give. They also tend to give the amount you suggest.

References:

Edwards, J. T., & List, J. A. (2014). Toward an understanding of why suggestions work in charitable fundraising: Theory and evidence from a natural field experiment. Journal of Public Economics, 114, 1-13.

Goswami, I., & Urminsky, O. (2016). When should the ask be a nudge? The effect of default amounts on charitable donations. Journal of Marketing Research, 53(5), 829-846.

Reiley, D., & Samek, A. (2017). Round giving: A field experiment on suggested charitable donation amounts in public television. University of Southern California working paper.