Matching words and images helps charities raise more money, study finds

A new study from Rotterdam School of Management shows that charity appeals work best when the emotion in their pictures matches the tone of their language — a simple adjustment that can lead to higher donations

Charities can raise more money by matching the emotion in their pictures with the tone of their messages, according to new research from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.

The international study — conducted with researchers from the University of Michigan, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford University — tested how emotional consistency affects people’s willingness to give.

Participants were each given $10 to donate or keep and shown a series of charity appeals combining different types of language and imagery.

When messages and visuals matched — such as urgent wording with distressing images, or positive messages with smiling faces — people donated more money.

A second part of the study used fMRI scans to track participants’ brain activity as they viewed the appeals.

When the emotion of the text and imagery aligned, the scans showed increased activity in the brain’s reward centre — suggesting that emotional consistency makes people feel better about donating and encourages them to give more.

The researchers say this offers a simple, low-cost way for charities to improve results. The same approach, they add, could also help businesses and social campaigns connect more effectively with audiences.

Dr Alex Genevsky, who led the study, said: “We really wanted to include experiments with real donations, not only hypothetical ones.

“When people know their choice will actually give money to charity, their behaviour carries more weight and the results are more reliable. We saw that, whether positive or negative, charitable appeals are most effective when their emotional elements matched in tone.”

The paper, The Impact of Affective Congruence on Charitable Giving, is published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

READ MORE: ‘Europe and UK lag behind in global giving as low-income nations lead’. The Charities Aid Foundation’s World Giving Report 2025 shows Europe and the UK near the bottom of global generosity rankings, with donations trailing far behind those in Africa and low-income countries.

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