Assessing Donor Salience and Motivation in Professional Sports from the Stakeholder Perspective

Abstract

Charitable nonprofit organizations that are established by professional sport entities have gained popularity as a form of philanthropy in the sport industry. However, limited research has addressed the importance of donors and identified motivational factors that encourage donors to contribute to professional sport nonprofit organizations. The current study qualitatively explored the stakeholder salience concept as well as professional sport donor motivation from the standpoints of managers and actual donors of such nonprofit organizations. The findings suggest that stakeholder salience perceptions differ between nonprofit managers and donors. Fan identification, awareness of needs, personal cause involvement, charity image, and community support were identified as primary motivational factors while the perceived effectiveness and altruism were minor donor motivations to support professional sport nonprofits.