Modelling the Members’ Intentions to Give

Abstract

Public broadcast stations in the USA are often dependent on effective fundraising for their survival. Raising money from audiences has become an important avenue through which those non-profit broadcasting organizations build their budgets. Listener/viewer support of these stations has plateaued or declined in recent years. As a result, it may help to examine how psychology theories might be used to inform our understanding of public donation behaviour. This case study involving 983 US public broadcasting donors explored the potential for using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to model their donation intentions from three perspectives: ( a) public broadcasting donors in general, ( b) public radio donors, and ( c) public television donors. Additionally, an extended model of the TPB incorporating guilt was tested. Results suggested that not all factors of the traditional TPB contributed to the donation intentions for the different modes of public broadcasting. The addition of guilt to the model increased the explanatory power of the TPB model. Findings indicate the TPB could be a useful tool for understanding the behaviour of donors to non-profit or public broadcasting organizations and has the potential to inform campaign strategies and message development.