Glossary
Warm Glow Giving
What is warm glow giving?
Warm glow giving, often discussed as the warm glow effect, describes satisfaction from one's own act of giving. It can coexist with concern for the benefit a donation produces for others.
The warm glow model and impure altruism
Andreoni's 1990 model allows utility to depend on both total provision of a public good and one's own contribution. This helps explain why another donor's contribution need not replace one's donation dollar for dollar.
What crowding out means here
The model asks how outside provision changes private giving. Suppose, hypothetically, Maya plans to donate $50 to a food bank. She values the food bank’s total resources, but she also values making a contribution herself. Learning that another donor has given more money could reduce the need she sees for her own gift without removing her reason to participate.
If outside funding causes private donations to fall, that is crowding out. It is incomplete when the decline in private giving is smaller than the increase in outside funding. In the example, Maya might reduce her planned gift but still give something because personally contributing has value to her. The model does not specify that every donor will respond this way or by the same amount.
Other motives and practical implications
Reputation, reciprocity, and self-image can be relevant to giving, but they should not automatically be treated as the same mechanism.
Why it matters
Feeling good about a donation and doing good through it are separate questions. Personal satisfaction does not establish the donation's impact, but it also does not mean concern for others is absent.