Applying the foot-in-the-door approach to increase response rates to mailed questionnaires and to enhance donation behaviour.

Abstract

This study evaluated the ability of a promised charitable donation to the Heart and Stroke Foundation by a corporate sponsor, Bell Canada, to stimulate a higher mail questionnaire response rate. In addition, the study assessed whether the intention to complete the questionnaire and its eventual return by mail would increase donations through a "foot-in-the-door" (FITD) effect during Heart and Stroke Month. Three study groups which included an experimental group (the Heart Group) and two control groups (the Bell and Mail Only Groups) were established by random assignment from a randomized cluster-sample of 910 households in the City of Kanata, a satellite community west of Ottawa, Ontario. The promised charitable donation by a corporate sponsor stimulated a greater response rate for personally-delivered mail questionnaires, and a foot-in-the-door effect associated with returning a mail questionnaire subsequently increased donations to the Heart and Stroke Fund. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)