Factors Influencing Donation Behavior: The Role of Seasonal Effects

Abstract

The aim of this research is to better understand the factors that influence donor behavior regarding monetary donations and how those factors are applicable within an eastern context. More specifically, this study focused to measure the effect of religious occasions like Ramadan on donor generosity and behavior in a majority Muslim society. For this, a cross sectional survey was conducted on 200 respondents from Karachi, Pakistan by means of close ended questionnaire. The same survey was conducted at two different intervals, one before Ramadan and one afterwards. peoples’ sentiments are heightened during the donation season and they feel more strongly for the less fortunate during the donation season. Such feelings motivate people to engage in activities that are related to charity or helping other. When comparing correlation results for pre and post-season, we can see that the number of variables with a correlation value of 0.4 have increased from 49 to 84, which is almost double. This shows that there are more significant variables having an impact on donation behavior in post-season than pre-season. The regression results provide evidence that peoples’ sentiments are heightened during the donation season and they feel more strongly for the less fortunate during the donation season. Moreover, the regression analysis suggests that altruism, empathy and forgiveness are the most significant variables under the psychological factors that have a significantly positive impact on donors’ behavior. According to the overall results of both pre-season and post season, social class, marital status and educational level under the demographic factors had a significantly positive impact on monetary donations. Overall, there is low to moderate impact of demographic factors on the donations. The results showed that donation seasons like Ramadan have a major impact on donor behavior.