Social networking effect on charitable behavior

Abstract

Although much research on fund-raising looked at the motivation behind donations and enhancing effectiveness of fund-raising strategies, no work to date has connected the two models in a corporate context; to inform whether social networking effect exists between staff and how it affects an individual’s charitable behaviour. This paper hence aims to determine if such a relationship exists and if so, develop fine-tuned strategies to improve the efficiency of charity drives. A fund-raising event was conducted within an organisation where staff were randomly assigned to treatment groups with varying information about a peer’s donation. Results from the data analysis indicate that social networking effect exists and different information revealed can influence a donor’s decision. Overall, donors tend to perform better when a “benchmark” donation amount is given for their reference. We hence recommend Non-Profitable Organisations (NPOs) to inform potential donors the benchmark amount only and refrain from revealing personal information of other donors so as to maximise the overall funds collected. Lastly, NPOs can target males for donation as they appear to be more influenced by the social networking effect and have a greater tendency to donate a larger amount at social functions.