Customer concentration and corporate charitable donations: Evidence from China

This study examines the impact of customer concentration on corporate charitable donations. Drawing on stakeholder and resource dependency theories, we argue that when firms rely on a small set of customers for a significant proportion of sales revenue, they will reduce corporate charitable donations. State ownership and industry competition moderate this relationship. Using data on corporate donations from Chinese listed firms between 2009 and 2019, we find support for our hypotheses. Our study contributes to the literature on customer concentration and corporate philanthropy in emerging economies.     

Determinants of fundraising efficiency of nonprofit organizations: evidence from US public charitable organizations

Using a translog stochastic production frontier and maximum likelihood estimation method, we estimate fundraising efficiency and examine the determinants of fundraising efficiency in public charitable organizations in the United States. Our study shows that organizational size has a positive impact on fundraising efficiency and government grants have a negative impact on fundraising efficiency. We also show that charities that allocate more resources on fundraising related labor, as compared with fundraising‐related materials and equipments, are more efficient in fundraising. These findings provide important managerial implications for public charities. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The extent of excessive or insufficient fundraising among US arts organizations and the effect of organizational efficiency on donations to US arts organizations

• We estimate, for each nonprofit organization (NPO) in a sample of 606 US arts NPOs, whether the NPO's level of fundraising is ‘excessive,’ ‘insufficient,’ or neither, relative to the level that maximizes net donations. We find that the effect of a 1% increase in fundraising on net donations varies widely across the arts NPOs in our sample—from an increase in net donations of 8.91% of gross donations to a decrease of 3.82% of gross donations. Of the 100 NPOs in our sample with the highest donations, the estimated effect of a 1% increase in fundraising on net donations varies more narrowly—from an increase in net donations of 0.27% of gross donations to a decrease of 0.32% of gross donations. Of these 100 NPOs, we estimate that only 3 engaged in ‘excessive’ fundraising, but 83 engaged in ‘insufficient’ fundraising, and 14 did not engage in ‘excessive’ or ‘insufficient’ fundraising.We also provide evidence that reported organizational efficiency does not affect donations to arts NPOs. This finding may be useful to managers and directors of US arts NPOs who believe that organizational efficiency does impact donations and who, therefore, incorporate the effect on efficiency in their decisions to allocate resources across fundraising, administration, and program objectives.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Charity brand personality: can smaller charitable organizations leverage their brand's personality to influence giving

The importance of establishing a strong brand identity has been the focus for consumer brand managers for decades. Organizations develop and communicate a distinctive brand personality as a means of attracting consumers and cultivating long‐term relationships. While the concept of branding has gained recent attention as an important strategy for nonprofit practitioners, little empirical data exist on the role a charity's brand personality might play in attracting donors. A few recent studies of large national charitable organizations provide support that charities exhibit distinctive personalities. This study explores whether smaller, local scope charitable organizations, without the benefit of national brand recognition, also exhibit distinctive brand personalities and whether such brand personalities influence donors. Results from five charitable organizations, from four distinct categories of cause, find that brand personality traits that are both differentiating and relevant to donors influence charitable giving. The findings provide nonprofit practitioners with valuable insights for leveraging their brand's personality to turn donor awareness into commitment and establish a stronger market position. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Accuracy of self-reports to the burdensome question: survey response and nonresponse error trade-offs

Survey self-reports to questions involving respondent burden are examined for: (1) overall accuracy, (2) direction of bias, and (3) influence on relationships. Self-reports by respondents to questions on an area of household finances are compared to error-free supplier records. The evidence shows self-reports in this case to be accurate at the overall, or aggregate, level, but inaccurate at the individual, or disaggregate, level. The trade-offs inherent in the nonresponse occurring as a consequence of attempting to acquire verified data versus response bias resulting from a reliance on self-reports from surveys are discussed. It is suggested that attempts by researchers to acquire error-free, verified information in surveys will lead in most cases to unacceptably high levels of item nonresponse. An alternative, algebraic procedure for adjusting for disaggregate level response bias in self-reports on the basis of a subsample of verified responses is provided.     

Analysis and forecast of donations at domestic hunger relief organizations impacted by natural disasters

Food banks are non-profit, charitable organizations that distribute food and products to people in need. Food bank facilities become disaster relief centers after natural disasters. The uncertainty associated with the arrival of donations and demand make the planning and operations of food banks challenging during the disaster relief period. The goal of this research is to analyse and forecast the amount of donations received by food bank facilities in the U.S. when operating as disaster relief centers. This paper analyses the donations received by two food bank facilities affected by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. An extensive numerical study is performed that compares the donation behavior at each facility before and after the hurricane event. Multiple forecasting models are evaluated to determine their accuracy in predicting the observed behavior. The results show that under disaster operations, the best performing techniques for both food banks were smoothing techniques (i.e., CMA and Holt) and econometric models.     

Marketing charitable bequests to lawyers

There is scant literature about the role of the lawyer in influencing the likelihood of a charitable bequest being made in a will. Charities regularly advertise in legal journals and supply bequest materials to lawyers, but the effectiveness of these strategies for influencing lawyers appears not to have been measured in the literature or in practice. Our exploratory research indicates that specialist estate lawyers report that they pay little or no attention to traditional marketing of charitable bequests to them and that lawyers' specific information needs from charities about bequests are not being satisfied appropriately. Our study reveals that lawyers do seek information from charities in order to write a will's bequest clause, once a bequest has been considered by the client. Lawyers indicated frustration with obtaining this information from charities, and we recommend some actions for charities to rectify this situation. Recommendations for enhanced bequest solicitation are made together with suggestions for pathways for future bequest research involving lawyers. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cash may be king,but goods are queen: Marketing for noncash donations by nonprofit organizations

To thrive and survive, nonprofit organizations should always seek new sources of donations. Although many of these entities are laser-focused on obtaining cash and other similar forms of funds from their donors, they should not forget the abundant donation type that is also available to them: noncash goods. The process of marketing to donors for these goods is unique compared to fundraising for cash. Consequently, the goal of this study is multifaceted: to remind nonprofit organizations of the availability of noncash goods as a donation source, encourage them to unlock this trove through marketing, and provide them with recommendations on how to do so.     

The economics of consumers' gifts and legacies to charitable organisations

Charity organisations in The Netherlands receive over 50 per cent of their total income from private fundraising; only a small part of this, 20 per cent, originates from legacies. The paper introduces some economic models of consumer behaviour in the neo‐classical tradition that harmonise with altruistic behaviour. Some models for analysing donations and bequests to charitable organisations are introduced and the hypotheses that follow from these theories are compared with Dutch data from 500 respondents. Most respondents had donated something to a charity during the last six months, but only a few had even thought about naming a charity in their will. Restrictions are felt by individuals due to their limited resources. More important, however, seem to be the restrictions on behaviour due to having children, or other close relatives; individuals feel obliged to leave everything to their children or other close relatives. Although the respondents have a reasonably positive opinion about the work and trustworthiness of the charity organisations, charities are not yet considered as ‘a close friend’. Around 40 per cent of respondents are not particularly happy with the information they receive from charity organisations. Communication about legacy donating is considered acceptable by most respondents, as long as the approach is not too personal. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications.     

A solicitor's perspective on charitable gifts in wills

• In the climate of public spending cuts, charities are increasingly expected to fill the gap. Yet charities themselves face huge challenges. Not just increasing demand for their services but falling income and low investment returns. Encouraging philanthropy has never been more important, and that includes legacy giving. Following the announcement last year of the Government's major inheritance tax incentive to encourage us to give more to charity on our death, the time is right for a major report on current trends in charitable legacy giving. Late last year, Mishcon de Reya undertook the most detailed analysis ever by a firm of solicitors of its clients' wills. In a study of over 1000 wills, we did not just look at how many people leave a legacy to charity. We considered the value of the legacy, the type of legacy, the likelihood of the charity ever receiving it, whether clients prefer to give to multiple charities, and the most popular charitable sectors. This article will give a quick overview of our research followed by a more detailed look at the three types of legacy to charity: cash—‘for example, I leave £10,000 to charity’,—specific items—‘for example, I leave a painting to charity’—and residuary gifts—‘for example, I give half my estate to charity’. The article will then briefly touch on the charity sectors most favoured by our clients before giving a brief summary of Mishcon de Reya's key findings in conclusion.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Applying a stakeholder management approach to ethics in charitable fundraising

While nonprofit accountability literature recognizes many stakeholders, even theoretically grounded approaches to fundraising ethics tend to focus more narrowly on donors, organizations, and their missions. This paper draws on business ethics scholarship by proposing a stakeholder management approach to ethics in fundraising. This approach foregrounds intentional examination of the multiple stakeholders in the fundraising process: the organization; its donors; current beneficiaries; the broader population within the issue; the fundraisers themselves; and the community. Following stakeholder theory, ethical fundraising activities must align with the charitable mission of the organization, and take into account the legitimate interests of those groups and individuals who can affect, or be affected by, its activities. The process of intentionally identifying, prioritizing, mapping claims, engaging with, and monitoring stakeholders offers fundraisers, nonprofit executives, and members of governing and advisory boards a pragmatic means of aligning fundraising efforts with the mission, values, and long-term strategy of their organizations.     

How should charitable organisations motivate young professionals to give philanthropically?

One hundred and fifty‐eight bankers, accountants and corporate lawyers, aged under 40 years, earning more than £50,000 annually and working in the City of London were questioned about their attitudes and behaviour in relation to charitable giving. A conjoint analysis of the respondents' preferences revealed strong predilections for certain types of charitable organisation; for ‘social’ rewards in return for donating (invitations to gala events and black tie dinners for example); and for well‐known charities with established reputations. ‘Planned giving’ whereby donors receive tax breaks and other financial incentives to donate (as increasingly practised in the USA) did not represent a significant inducement to give so far as this particular sample was concerned. Overall the results suggest that young affluent male City employees constitute a distinct market segment for charity fundraisers, with unique characteristics that need to be addressed when developing donor products. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications     

A systemic approach to the application of marketing theory for charitable organisations

This paper will examine the contribution which core marketing concepts and ideas can make to an examination of the nonprofit-making sector, specifically charitable organisations. Using systemic theory as a framework it will be argued that core marketing concepts and ideas developed in, and specific to, the private sector, cannot be easily transferred to an examination of the charitable sector. At the same time however it will be stressed that these core concepts and ideas can provide a useful initial framework of reference against which further developments can be undertaken. The paper will propose a new dynamic approach to examining the charitable sector which facilitates a more discriminating approach to the application of marketing constructs.     

Recognizing large donations to public goods: an experimental test

Private charities often publicise generous individual contributions or contributors, possibly to encourage others to give. In contrast, public good experiments used to study voluntary giving commonly tell participants only of total contributions. This paper reports an experimental test of the effect on contributions of supplying additional selective information. A control treatment is run that reveals only total contributions over ten one‐shot decision rounds. This is compared to a second treatment that also informs subjects of the maximum contribution made in their group after each round. In a third treatment, subjects are further given the opportunity to make costly rewards to the maximum contributor. Revealing generous contributions appears to raise average contributions slightly. Surprisingly, adding the ability to reward large contributors does little to generate further increases, though it significantly raises the variance of contributions. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The timing of final charitable bequest decisions

• Understanding the timing of final charitable bequest decisions permits nonprofits to co‐ordinate their marketing efforts to correspond with donor decision‐making. Using probate data from Australia and longitudinal survey data from the USA, this paper seeks to identify the timing of decisions that resulted in realized charitable bequests. We find evidence that charitable transfers result mostly from decisions that occur during the last 5 years of life and at the oldest ages. Charitable plans made earlier in life are often discarded.

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism donations in sacred settings: an exploratory study of visitor donations in an English cathedral

• This paper explores visitor behaviour in relation to making donations for Chichester Cathedral upkeep. It found that 94% of respondents were aware of the donation appeals and that 71% of them went on to make a donation, with the visitors aged 50 to 69 years and living within 25 mi of the Cathedral being the most frequent and generous donors. When asked to suggest what they would consider an appropriate donation, 44% of respondents gave a figure between £1 and £2. This paper argues that the present donation management measures at Chichester Cathedral are insufficient to bring the desired income and makes recommendations on the measures that Cathedral managers can implement to increase visitor donations. Among these recommendations, the most significant are the profiling of visitors, the identification and targeting of donors' personal meanings to give a donation and, in the case of Chichester Cathedral, to specifically target these meanings on their local, middle‐aged visitors.

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The antecedents and consequences of charitable donation heterogeneity on social media

This study claims that donating is a rational behavior that balances altruism and self‐interest; therefore, the frequency and magnitude of donating are picked as crucial criteria to classify different crowdfunders because both of them reflect the rationality of donating. This study identifies 6 clusters of crowdfunders and explores the antecedent variables of the typology based on self‐system theory, as well as reveals the social influence of different types of crowdfunders. Data of the crowdfunders (n = 13,868) were collected from “Micro Philanthropy,” a popular SNS crowdfunding platform for charity in China. Social Network Service (SNS) profile information such as network features, social interaction features, and the identity of users was found to be significantly related to the typology. Active donors and bounteous donors are more influential than other donors in absorbing the attention of SNS users and attracting new donors.