How to Ask People for Change: Examining Peoples’ Willingness to Donate to Human Rights Campaigns

Abstract

Imagine that Amnesty International, or any other large global human rights organization (HRO) has decided to start a campaign. Perhaps the issue is marriage equality, or stopping sleep deprivation during interrogation. These types of issues may be less widely accepted by the general public as human rights issues, requiring that the HRO first change minds, and only then try to mobilize their effort or resources on that campaign’s behalf. Raising money for such a campaign would be very challenging but doable, assuming that the organization knows how best to frame their appeals when they ask people to support the initiative.