Cass R. Sunstein, Columnist

How to Nudge People to Give More to Charity

Ask regular donors to increase their gifts — not now, but in the near future.

December 11, 2017 at 10:00 AM UTC

Cass R. Sunstein is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is the author of “The Cost-Benefit Revolution” and a co-author of “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness.”

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One of the most spectacularly successful ideas in all of behavioral economics is Save More Tomorrow, by which employers ask employees if they would like to give some portion of their future wage increases to their retirement plans. An equally intriguing but largely untried idea is Give More Tomorrow, by which people take steps to increase their charitable donations — in the future. For nonprofits, employers and individuals, the holiday season would be a terrific time to take advantage of that idea.

Save More Tomorrow plans, pioneered by UCLA’s Shlomo Benartzi and the University of Chicago’s Richard Thaler, are a response to four findings in behavioral economics.