![]() Half the people in the treatment group received an envelope teaser. The letter used enhanced active choice framing. ![]() However, these results were so small that we couldn’t rule out that they might be due to chance. Overall, 17 more people in the treatment group filed their taxes compared to those in the control group. Among the households that were sent the letter, a further half got a special envelope with a teaser message. Half of those households were selected at random to receive the letter. We leveraged Canada Post to help identify households in low-income neighborhoods using public data. Although running a test with fewer recipients may have been simpler and cheaper, it would have risked us overlooking a real, potentially meaningful effect. Therefore, we planned to conduct a trial with a large sample of 15,000 people. While we expected the letter to have an effect, we also knew that program uptake would be generally low relative to the number of letters sent. We also tested an envelope teaser message. The letter used active-choice framing, asking people to make a decision about what they want to do while drawing out the implications of not taking action. What we didĮarlier this year, our team designed a randomized controlled trial to see if an intervention letter could increase participation in OPNC’s tax filing clinic. We found that the direct mail letters did not have an effect-an important and useful insight. Building on these results, we wondered if applying the same behavioural principles to direct mail (ie letters) might help reach an even broader set of potential beneficiaries. ![]() Our first trial in 2020 tested a behaviourally-informed email encouraging people to sign up. Although the service is free, and helps people who are eligible for refunds get about $5,000 on average, it can be difficult to max out participation. UWHH’s lead community partner, Oak Park Neighbourhood Centre (OPNC), is based in the Halton region of Ontario and offers many vital programs and services, including tax filing clinics for low-income households. UWHH supports an essential network of community organizations and is playing a leading role in exploring applied behavioral insights in the Canadian social sector. In 2020, we partnered with United Way Halton and Hamilton (UWHH) on a collaborative Ontario Trillium Foundation grant to understand how behavioural insights might improve financial empowerment programming. How will organizations know what works? BIT has helped many nonprofits use behavioural insights approaches to answer this question, from understanding what drives people to give to increasing program uptake. That means pursuing strategies that are effective-and avoiding those that aren’t. But in order to fulfill these missions, many have to make the most of limited resources. They help people access essential services, protect ecosystems, and more.
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