Community Service and Economics

It's no surprised that there is an underwhelming level of community service in our society, even though there are dozens of organizations in need of volunteers. Washington State University even has a designated office on campus to help connect students with volunteer opportunities. Since I started teaching, I knew that integrating community service into my courses was a priority. I really started it last semester with a canned food drive:

For a mere 3 bonus points (0.3% of their final grade), I volunteered to take canned food or toiletries to the CAC Food Bank on their behalf. The results were overwhelming to say the least. The class of 200 students responded by bringing in over 500 cans of food, 68 paper products, and dozens of "other" goods.

The first response I received from fellow faculty members was, "what does this have to do with economics?" I quickly told them nothing, and that I wanted to give them the opportunity to give back to the community. So I took the challenge to implement economics and community service together. Using a GoFundMe All-Or-Nothing Campaign, I challenged my 100 person course to raise a little over $500 to donate to the local YMCA. If the class meets the goal by the deadline, the YMCA will receive $500 and every person in the class (regardless of whether they donate) will receive 15 bonus points, plus some incentives along the way.

Hopefully our well versed economists know what economic theory will suggest, but do you think that will be the actual result? Can the students overcome the theory and reach the socially optimal outcome? I guess we'll find out in 16 days!  Do you have any other ideas on how to link community service with economics?