The Effect of Demographic, Socio-economic and Other Characteristics on Donations

Abstract

The study aims to find the effect of demographic, socio-economic and other characteristics on donations. Secondly, the relationship of fundraising campaigns and trust of an individual on an organization is explored. The objectives of the study are to find out the characteristics that can effect donations and to verify which characteristics have strong influence on donations. Data is collected from the donors of a non-profit organization (Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust) and classify into two categories on the basis of an amount of donation given in last 6 months. The sample size is 600 donors. Factor analysis and logistic regression is employed to measure the results. Independent sample t-test is used to make comparison between the means of donors and non-donors. Results show insignificant impact of age and gender compared to other factors such as income, education, religion, individual attitude, perceived generosity, perceived financial security, fundraising campaigns and trust have significant impact on the amount of donations. The implication for practitioners suggests that non-profit organization should focus on advertising on television to let people know about its existence. It not only helps to increase awareness but to boost trust of an organization as well. Future study might test the theoretical model in other cultures, in different industry with different sample size. The inclusion of variables such as volunteering and motivation of an individual can better describe the relationship with organization and hence increases the amount of donations.