Charity organizations such as the Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Greenpeace address some of the most pressing problems in the world today. Yet, they often operate with fewer resources, personnel, and marketing budgets than their profit-driven counterparts. This makes creativity and strategic thinking essential: charities must find ways to generate awareness, attract new donors, and retain existing ones.

In this course, you’ll learn what makes people care, give, and act for others. You’ll discover how charities and companies can nudge people toward prosocial behavior, explore inspiring campaigns through the SHIFT framework, and even design your own evidence-based ideas. By the end, you’ll not only understand the psychology behind giving, but also know how to put it into practice.

By the end of this course, students will be able to…

1. Describe and explain key psychological theories and principles that shape prosocial decision-making and charitable behavior.

2. Analyze and apply the SHIFT framework to understand and interpret drivers of charitable giving and cause-related marketing.

3. Evaluate real-world charity marketing campaigns by identifying the behavioral mechanisms that explain their success or shortcomings.

4. Design and propose evidence-based interventions and marketing strategies that nudge individuals toward prosocial engagement.

5. Conduct and synthesize findings from a small-scale, team-based research project that advances practical or academic insights in charitable marketing.

Students are expected to attend 100% of the scheduled classes (formal records of attendance will be kept). You at least need to be present 80% of the time, which implies that you should not miss more than one session.

The course combines research-based and practice-oriented learning. Students are introduced to cutting-edge research on prosocial behavior and charitable marketing, with a special focus on the SHIFT framework. Interactive sessions encourage students to critically discuss theories, deconstruct real-world campaigns, and solve practical challenges.

A project-based approach gives students ownership of developing and testing their own research ideas, while the instructor provides targeted inputs on theory, research design, and analytical tools. To bridge theory and practice, guest speakers from the nonprofit and marketing sectors share first-hand insights into the challenges of engaging people and inspiring prosocial action.

Your final grade will be based on three components:

• In-class participation (20%, individual) – Active contributions to discussions and activities.

• Charity Challenge (30%, individual & group) – Applying course concepts to analyze and design solutions for real-world charity marketing cases.

• Research project (50%, group) – Collaborative project developing and presenting original insights into charitable marketing.

This course is part of the elective pool "Marketing for a Better World" of the MSc Marketing at WU.

MSc Marketing students can only register if they have successfully completed the following mandatory courses from the 1st year:

• Management by Experiments (5 ECTS)
• Marketing Analytics (7.5 ECTS)
• Digital Marketing (5 ECTS)

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If you have questions about the course content or organization, you are welcome to get in touch at any time. I am happy to answer questions directly after class or via email at pascal.guentuerkuen@wu.ac.at