Motivation through Donation Challenges

During my master thesis I researched if one could promote desirable behavior (physical activity) by using a monetary incentive in the form of donations. So I prototyped an application where a donation is triggered whenever a self-set goal is not achieved. A typical challenge might look like this:

“If I don’t go running at least once a week and cover a total of 50 kilometers within four weeks, I will donate 50 euros to the German Red Cross.”

or

“If I don’t do 20 minutes of yoga every day for two weeks, I will donate 35 euros to the food bank.”

With the app you challenge yourself. In doing so, you increase your own motivation to stay active — and even in case of failure, you can still feel good knowing that your donation contributes to a meaningful cause.

Both outcomes — personal progress and meaningful giving — strengthen your sense of self-efficacy.

I pitched that idea to a hackathon during the lockdown. If you’re interested in how that went, you can listen to a podcast where I talk about the experience.