Elements, causes and effects of donor engagement among supporters of UK charities

Abstract

A survey of charity donors sought to establish the main causes and effects of charity donors’ feelings of engagement with the charities they had supported during the previous 12 months. Engagement was characterised in terms of a donor’s enthusiasm when supporting an organisation, passion for the charity, and deep interest in its activities. A model was developed which assumed that levels of engagement were determined by a person’s experience of interacting with a charity, relationship quality, and the degree of congruence between a donor’s image of the charity and the individual’s self-identity. A new scale to measure donor engagement was specially constructed for use in the investigation. Consequences of high engagement were posited to include increased donations, more frequent giving and improved word of mouth. Relationship quality was hypothesised to involve trust in and a sense of closeness to a charity’s work. Data on donors’ engagement levels was collected via street interviews with a sample of 791 supporters of UK charities.