People tend to think more highly of companies that give to charity on a monthly or weekly basis rather than donating an annual lump sum worth the same amount.
This is what I and five other marketing researchers found when we conducted seven studies involving more than 150,000 people. The Journal of Marketing Research, which is peer-reviewed, published our article on the results in early 2026. My co-author Alexander B. Park and I led the team.
Our goal was to discover whether the way a company communicates with the public about its donations affects how much credit it gets from consumers for those gifts.
Across seven studies, we found that companies earn more goodwill when they give consistently – say, US$20,000 a month – instead of making a single $240,000 gift. On average, consumers also said they were more likely to buy from those companies.
To test this premise, we did two real-world studies. First, we partnered with GiftAMeal, a U.S. company that runs a free app for diners. Each time someone takes a photo of their meal at a participating restaurant and shares it on social media, GiftAMeal donates to a local food bank.
We ran two versions of GiftAMeal’s Facebook ad, which together reached 67,576 people. One said the company “donated 25,000 meals every month” last year. The other said it “donated 300,000 meals” last year. Both were true, and everything else about the ads was the same. We found that people who saw the monthly version were about 21% more likely to click on the ad.
Next, we worked with Salt + Smoke, a Midwestern barbecue restaurant. When we emailed 75,514 customers who subscribed to its newsletters, half read that the company would give $5,000 a month from September through December to a small, local charity that supports early childhood education programs. The other half read that it would make a one-time donation of $20,000.
Subscribers who read about the monthly donation pledge were nearly twice as likely to click through to the restaurant’s website as those who read about the one-time gift pledge even though the total was the same.
Then we ran online experiments with more than 7,400 people to learn why and when consistent giving makes people view a company more favorably. We found that, on average, when a company gives monthly, people see its charitable support as a more genuine commitment to the causes.
Why it matters
U.S. companies gave nearly $44 billion in 2025 alone. And this kind of giving is popular with the public. In a 2022 survey, 88% of Americans said it’s important for companies to make the world a better place.
Companies frequently promote their donations with the largest numbers they can muster. For example, Microsoft announced that the software giant and its employees donated $256 million in 2025; Walmart and its foundation say they have donated $2 billion in 2026.
Yet boasting about big numbers may not impress people as much as emphasizing the consistency of donations. This may help explain why companies often struggle to convey their charitable efforts in ways that win people over.
Even if companies give only once a year, they can indicate that they are engaged in a steady pattern of giving. For example, they can make their annual gifts on Giving Tuesday every year. Donating on the same day or as part of the same fundraising campaign every year can signal an ongoing commitment, not a one-off.
What still isn’t known
We don’t yet know how long the reputational boost companies may get from recurring donations might last, or whether those donations can translate into long-term customer loyalty.
It’s also possible that what we found would not apply during emergencies. For example, consumers might be happy to see a company make one big gift right after a hurricane when a local community’s needs are immense.
What’s next
Along with Park and Cynthia Cryder, a Washington University in St. Louis marketing professor, I’m now studying other ways that corporate philanthropy can affect how much credit companies get for doing good. So far, we’ve found that companies may earn less goodwill when they ask customers to chip in to their charitable campaigns. People seem to expect companies to carry more of the load themselves.
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.
Yanyi Leng does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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