The Effects of the Facial Expression of Beneficiaries in Charity Appeals and Psychological Involvement on Donation Intentions

An increasingly competitive fundraising environment and the new media ecosystem have prompted nonprofit organizations to strengthen their digital marketing capabilities. Recently, a few nonprofits have used virtual reality (VR) technology in fundraising, which raises questions about its effectiveness. Does VR work, and if so, through what psychological mechanisms? Through a lab experiment, the usefulness of VR as a digital fundraising tool was investigated. Specifically, we compared the media effects of experiencing the same fundraising video on two different devices: (a) a head‐mounted VR and (b) a tablet. The results revealed that donation intention, perceived vividness, perceived interactivity, and social presence were all significantly greater with the VR medium than with the tablet medium. Next, we tested and successfully verified the mediation effect of social presence on donation intention. Finally, we verified that a viewer's sensation‐seeking tendency served as a moderator when the device type influenced donation intention. Specifically, the media effects of VR were stronger for high sensation seekers than for low sensation seekers. This study contributes to theory and research by verifying the VR fundraising effect and identifying the key role of social presence, and it also provides important managerial guidelines for media design in VR fundraising campaigns.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonprofit fundraising with virtual reality

Yoo

Drumwright²

2018

“…The current research on fundraising explains variation in giving based on static demographic criteria (e.g., gender, income) or personal experiences (e.g., the so‐called psychological “warm glow” of giving) (see Bekkers & Wiepking, ). It has also provided information on the specific mechanisms that result in a gift such as awareness of the need (see, e.g., Berkowitz, ; Cheung & Chan, ) and solicitation and marketing (see, e.g., Bryant, Slaughter, Kang, & Tax, ; Cao & Jia, ). What we know about the psychological benefits to the giver (e.g., Andreoni, ; Batson, ; Batson & Shaw, ), comes primarily from social psychologists and, also, from economists.…”

Section: Discussion: Practical and Theoretical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An unseen lens: The relationship between philanthropists’ developmental meaning making and philanthropic activity

Jones

2018

To solve complex problems such as poverty, nonprofit leaders must think in increasingly complex ways. Research on philanthropy has not yet explored the complexity of philanthropists’ thinking while making philanthropy‐related decisions. Developmental psychology indicates that adults develop an increasingly complex mental map over the course of a lifetime and that this map emerges as a series of successive stages. This study asked: How, if at all, does this mental map inform philanthropy? This four‐phase mixed‐methods multi‐case study (n = 11) used constructive developmental theory to empirically assess philanthropists’ developmental levels and, then, compare identified levels with data about the donor's philanthropic activities such as donations and board memberships. The contributions of the study are twofold: (a) the findings suggest philanthropists’ developmental levels are related to their thinking processes about charitable giving and the rationales they employ to make decisions about their philanthropic activities (specifically, how they form ideas about the problem and how they engage in empathy), and (b) this study makes a methodological contribution by demonstrating a novel (and apparently useful) approach to researching philanthropic giving. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

“…Particularly in the case of marginalized groups, appeals may include images or describe shocking situations to stimulate giving out of sympathy or guilt (Small & Verrochi, 2009;Van Rijn et al, 2017). This practice can be particularly effective for engaging donors who have little previous connection to a charity or cause (Cao & Jia, 2017). But such images and prose may also perpetuate negative stereotypes and diminished expectations of the client group, reinforcing existing social power frameworks (Bhati & Eikenberry, 2016;Timmer, 2010).…”

Section: Interaction Of Fundraising Giving and Social Normsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stories of strangers: Writing donor acquisition letters in the human services

Hansen

2020

This study explores the choices fundraisers make in crafting letters to acquire new donors for a human services organization, and whether the type of client served affects those choices. We use an experiment to control for organizational differences, and code the resulting letters written for elements identified in theory and practice, then perform an exploratory factor analysis to find patterns of co‐occurring variables. Writers tended to focus either on the quality of the organization or the unmet need in the community, but not both. Two of the factors, Universalism and Security, describe distinct personal value constructs that may reflect the preferences of the writer or the presumed preferences of the reader. Compared to participants writing for an older adult client base, participants writing for clients with mental illness were less likely to use a negative frame, more likely to use statistical evidence, and used lower expectations in describing successful client outcomes. Within letters, clients were described using three patterns: by describing a stranger who is worth helping because of intrinsic attributes; by describing a stranger who is worth helping because of their relationships within the social order; by describing the client group using facts and statistics, rather than an emotionally compelling story narrative.