Donor Preference Research Articles

Organizational design for making a difference

We address organizations that rely on donors, when those donors are motivated by making a difference. We show that when donors care sufficiently about their marginal impact, firms use practices that would normally be deemed inefficient. These include prioritizing less valuable opportunities over better ones, investing most in their weakest initiatives, and benefiting from not identifying the quality of their projects. These all arise from a distinction between marginal and average returns generated by donor preferences.

Higher Education Policy and Access for South Sudanese from Bidi Bidi, Uganda

This paper explores the influence of HE education policy formulation and practice on refugee access and resilience among South Sudanese from Bidi Bidi settlement, in Uganda. |The study adopted a qualitative approach, using exploratory case study design within the advocacy/ participatory world view philosophy. Data was collected from 27 participants -12 undergraduate students from 2 private Ugandan universities; 13 government and non-government organization (NGO) officials, 2 officials from public and private universities, all involved in refugee education. Data collection was through literature review, key informant, and student in-depth interviews, and a focus group discussion. Findings reveal that HE policy formulation is in principle incorporated in development of the Education Response Plan (ERP) for refugees and host communities. The HE policy formulation process in Uganda excludes input from refugee students and higher education institutions (HEIs). The process traverses a value chain with intersecting complexities including; refugee demographics, non-binding supra-state policy, donor preferences for basic education and emergency interventions, negative perceptions on HE returns, hostility and refugee exclusion, and students’ personal challenges. As a result, HE is relegated to the fringes, with no objectives and activities in the ERP, thus influencing refugee access and resilience. Relatedly, support for refugees is largely from HEIs and NGOs, within their silo, independent guidelines. This study adds to discourse on refugee access and can inform higher education policy formulation as well as enhance refugee access and resilience, especially in light of the UNHCR 15 by 2030.

The communicative power of nonprofit actions and values: A pilot study of dialogic stewardship

The following study seeks to expand and advance stewardship theory in public relations by incorporating tenets of dialogic and contingency theories to propose dialogic stewardship. Given fundraising trends and a theoretical shift in public relations to reconsider relational outcomes beyond organizational performance, the study re-centers stewardship on donor preferences and highlights the need to co-create stewardship strategies with donors to nonprofit organizations. After defining dialogic stewardship and how it helps to address “negative spaces” in donor-nonprofit relationships, the study puts forth a measurement model incorporating donor perspectives by using quantitative scale development processes. Analysis suggests dialogic stewardship consists of five dimensions: Reporting on Responsibility, Strategic Recognition, Organizational Values, Financial Management, and Engagement. The conclusion explains how these dimensions build public relations theory by deliberately bringing stewardship and dialogue together.

The Power of Elites: A Survey Experiment of the Impact of Strategic Messaging on Donations to Nonprofits

ABSTRACT Nonprofits engage in various service and advocacy efforts to support their missions, and it is critical to effectively communicate the importance of these activities and their missions to donors. In these communications, it remains unclear the extent to which messaging from nonprofit elites such as coalitions and other nonprofit infrastructure organizations (NIOs) shapes donor support for service and advocacy activities, and which messages exhibit the strongest influence on donors. This survey experiment tests the effects of three strategic messages from a fictional NIO on respondents’ allocation of donation budgets between traditionally service-oriented nonprofits engaging in varying levels of service and advocacy activities. Results show messages promoting advocacy and social change yield substantial donation increases to nonprofits engaging in low and high levels of advocacy work. Messages pushing direct service failed to produce effects on donor intentions; however, findings suggest direct service may enjoy an inherent advantage in donor preference.

On crocodiles and turtles. Stereotypes, emotional tendencies and implications for conservation

ABSTRACT Even with the increasing global threat, reptiles have not been a preferential group for animal conservation due to a set of factors affecting attitudes and emotions. This research extends the current knowledge of crocodiles and turtles to stereotypes and emotional dispositions people have. Through the Stereotype Content Model, crocodiles were found to belong to the threatening-awe stereotype, generating feelings of respect and fear but also holding our attention and admiration. This stereotype is also associated with passive facilitation and active harm. Even though participants showed mild positive attitudes toward crocodile conservation and expressed intent to help a crocodile conservation trust, crocodiles ranked last in the donation preference. Turtles, on the other hand, were found to fit the protective stereotype, represented as affectionate and competent and were viewed as belonging to the in-group. These emotions reflected the participants’ predisposition for active and passive facilitation with regard to conservation attitudes and intentions.

To Assess the Iron Reserves in Blood Donors by Measuring Serum Ferritin and Hemoglobin in the Children Hospital Lahore

Introduction: Frequent contribution of blood can cause iron exhaustion in blood donors along with the problems related to it. Curtailing the proportion of iron reduction among blood donors is a crucial plan for boosting donor’s well-being. Aim & objectives: The aim of this analysis is to determine iron stocks by measuring serum ferritin in pre-donation male blood donors along with their relation with the hemoglobin concentration and frequency of blood donations. Study design: Cross-sectional study. Place and duration: Pathology (immunohematology) department and blood bank of University of Child Health Sciences, The Children Hospital Lahore from Aug 2021 to July 2022 Material and Methods: A total of 350 serum samples were processed to determine hemoglobin and serum ferritin concentrations. The study involved was performed on healthy blood donors. The method used was chemiluminescence for the simultaneous measurement of serum ferritin. Results: An aggregate of 350 serums were collected from the contributors in blood bank. Among them, 154 were the first-time donor and 196 were the frequent donors; the serum ferritin was markedly reduced in constant contributors. The mean value 105ng/mL was found in infrequent donors and 79.35ng/mL was found in frequent donors. There was no notable variance in hemoglobin of newbie and regular blood givers. However, a momentous variation in the pervasiveness of iron depletion between first‑time and regular donors is found. Conclusion: Blood donation has a noteworthy impact on iron stores and is one of the most important factors for iron shortage in contributors, specifically in those who donate blood again and again. Serum ferritin measurement ought to be incorporated in the blood donor preference especially in the evaluation of consistent blood givers to assure enough iron pools in the donor community in order to sustain a pertinent potential donor.

An overview of reviews of conservation flagships: evaluating fundraising ability and surrogate power

The main role of flagship species in biodiversity conservation is to raise awareness and funds for conservation. Because of their marketing role, flagship species are often selected based on other than biodiversity related criteria, such as species charisma or aesthetic appeal. Nonetheless, funds raised through flagship species are often used to protect the species itself, making it important to evaluate the effectiveness of flagship species as conservation tools: For example, could superior fundraising ability outweigh the low biodiversity surrogate power of a flagship, justifying this ambivalent role in conservation? To assess flagship effectiveness from this dual perspective, we must synthesize evidence on a) the fundraising potential of flagship species vs. other conservation targets, such as ecosystems or biodiversity, and b) the biodiversity surrogate power of potential flagship taxa. We approached this broad topic through an overview of reviews on both subtopics. We found no evidence that charismatic flagship species were superior fundraisers over other conservation targets. In addition, studies evaluating the biodiversity surrogacy power of different taxa had mainly resulted in mixed findings, contesting the overall usefulness of the concept in conservation. The variability of study setups and methods made comparisons between studies difficult, highlighting the need to standardize future research (e.g., standardizing explanatory variables). Further possible reasons for lack of conclusive evidence on fundraising potential are the dominance of factors other than flagship identity (e.g., scope and conservation status) and differences in donor preferences. We recommend Environmental NGOs to develop and diversify their fundraising strategies based on best available knowledge, and rely less on mere species charisma.

Investing in monarch conservation: understanding private funding dynamics

Non-profit environmental organizations (NGOs) rely heavily on external donors to fulfill their mandates. However, forecasting donations for long-term planning is an elusive task at best. The non-compulsory nature of donation requires NGOs to understand how donors’ attention and funding allocations change over time as conservation scenarios change and incorporate these insights into their budgeting plans. We hypothesize that an NGO can hinder its capacity to reach its conservation goals by neglecting its donor-NGO-natural system (DNNS), which is reactive to the socio-ecological context. To test our hypothesis, we compared the ecological outcomes derived from a budgeting strategy assuming donors have a fixed willingness to pay throughout the program (open-loop) against the reality that donor preferences change over time (closed-loop) based on the evolving ecological context, partly driven by the program’s actions. Our analysis was performed using two different willingness to pay (WTP) behavioural models, one representing donors informed about the success of the program supported (GPI), and another without such information (GPI), evidencing how the underlying assumptions about the target donors can radically change the organization’s fundraising strategy. Next, we used our closed-loop approach to estimate NGO’s optimal yearly donation requests to achieve a conservation target. Finally, we tested the consequences of presuming an incorrect WTP behavioural model while estimating optimal yearly donation requests by applying the optimization results from the previous step into a model parameterized with a different behavioural model. Our model was created by coupling a discrete choice experiment (DCE) and a systems dynamics model, developing a coupled social-ecological model of the eastern Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), a charismatic long-distant migrant butterfly that has dwindled in numbers across North America mainly due to the increases in GMO agriculture. Our results showed a significant difference in donations received and ecological outcome forecasted by an open-loop model and the actual numbers obtained by the more real-life, closed-loop model, highlighting the importance of accounting for human behaviour during the planning phase of a long-term conservation strategy. Next, when we used our closed-loop to estimate optimal donation requests, the conservation objectives and funds raised were consistently and efficiently achieved, regardless of the underlying behavioural WTP model. We also designed novel visual tools from the behaviour WTP model exploration to bridge the gap between science insights obtained from DCEs and decision-making. However, when we used closed-loop optimal donation requests obtained from one WTP behaviour model into a simulation parameterized with different WTP behavioural models, considerable ecological and financial targets deviations arose. These deviations highlight the importance of acknowledging the dynamic nature of donor’s behaviour and the need to thoroughly characterize such behaviour. Finally, we introduce a novel forecasting tool that conservation managers will have at their disposal to improve the accuracy of their budget forecasting and, ultimately, increase the program’s success rate.

Examining Donor Preference for Charity Religious Affiliation

In the United States, most charitable donations go to religiously affiliated organizations, yet the impact of a charity’s affiliation on donor behavior is currently unclear. To better understand this impact, this article uses a laboratory experiment to explore how a charity’s religious affiliation drives donor behavior. In the experiment, participants select one charity from a list of eight, with each charity varying in religious affiliation. Masked and unmasked sessions differ in the inclusion of religious affiliation from half the charities, with masked sessions omitting religious affiliation of the charities. This article finds that adding religious language decreases donation frequency and average donation amounts for Christian charities competing against other religious charities. This drop is primarily driven by participants that are politically liberal. Participants prefer charity religious affiliation to match their own religious identity; however, participant strength of religiosity is more predictive in charity choice than religious affiliation.

Correlated Local Fluctuations in the Hydrogen Bond Network of Liquid Water.

The hypothesis that liquid water can separate into two phases in the supercooled state has been supported by recent experimental and theoretical studies. However, whether such structural inhomogeneity extends to ambient conditions is under intense debate. Due to the dynamic nature of the hydrogen bond network of liquid water, exploring its structure requires detailed insight into the collective motion of neighboring water molecules, a missing link that has not been examined so far. Here, highly sensitive quantum mechanical calculations detect that the time evolution of nearby hydrogen bonds is strongly correlated, revealing a direct mechanism for the appearance of short-range structural fluctuations in the hydrogen bond network of liquid water for the first time. This correlated dynamics is found to be closely connected to the static structural picture. The distortions from the tetrahedral structure do not occur independently but are correlated due to the preference of nearby donors and acceptors to be in similar environments. The existence of such cooperative fluctuations is further supported by the temperature dependence of the local structural evolution and explained by conventional analysis of localized orbitals. It was found that such correlated structural fluctuations are only observed on a short length scale in simulations at ambient conditions. The correlations of the nearby hydrogen bond pairs of liquid water unveiled here are expected to offer a new insight into connecting the dynamics of individual water molecules and the local structure of the hydrogen bond network.

Information about conservation status is more important than species appearance in the species preferences of potential conservation donors

SummaryThere are huge differences in the conservation support and attention received by different species, perhaps because of human preferences for specific aesthetic traits, such as body size and colouring. If there are such inherent human preferences, then new flagship species should be aesthetically similar to existing successful flagship species and conservation campaigns should not feature less attractive species. However, cultural preconceptions about species and the covariance of traits make it difficult to determine the role of aesthetic traits. Both of these problems can be overcome with imaginary animals. If preferences for certain species traits are inherent in the human psyche, then the same preferences should be found in both real and imaginary animals. Using an online survey with US participants, we find that aesthetic traits are associated with preferences for real but not imaginary animals. For both real and imaginary animals, small and declining populations are preferred. We therefore suggest that organizations should not reject potential flagship species based on appearance. Consistent preferences for poor conservation status and the ability to use our results to predict donations to real animal species suggest that conservation support for specific species could be encouraged if organizations communicate information regarding population sizes and trends.

'Take my kidneys but not my corneas'-Selective preferences as a hidden problem for 'opt-out' organ donation policy.

With aims to both increase organ supply and better reflect individual donation preferences, many nations worldwide have shifted from 'opt-in' to 'opt-out' systems for post-mortem organ donation (PMOD). In such countries, while a prospective donor's willingness to donate their organs/tissues for PMOD was previously ascertained-at least partially-by their having recorded positive donation preferences on an official register prior to death, this willingness is now presumed or inferred-at least partially-from their not having recorded an objection to PMOD-on an official organ donation register. Using evidence regarding the presence and prevalence of selective donation preferences, and via exploration of how appeals to donation preferences are used to both motivate and legitimate shifts to opt-out frameworks, this paper draws attention to a set of previously unexplored problems for opt-out organ donation arising in contexts where: (a) individuals demonstrate selective post-mortem organ/tissue donation preferences, (b) legislation provides prospective donors with the opportunity to selectively permit/refuse the donation of certain organs/tissues in line with these preferences. While selective preferences pose few problems for opt-in systems where a selective occasion is built into the process of signing the donor register, this is not the case for opt-out systems. The loss of this selective occasion can cause significant problems where appeals to preferences motivate/legitimate shifts to opt-out but evidence regarding variable preferences does not feed into determinations regarding organ/tissue exclusions. The nature of these problems depends on how the authorization aspect of 'opt-out' systems is framed (e.g. as presumed consent, deemed consent or, given the role of familial consent in many jurisdictions as consent in name only).

An Ethical Defense of a Mandated Choice Consent Procedure for Deceased Organ Donation

Organ transplant shortages are ubiquitous in healthcare systems around the world. In response, several commentators have argued for the adoption of an opt-out policy for organ transplantation, whereby individuals would by default be registered as organ donors unless they informed authorities of their desire to opt-out. This may potentially lead to an increase in donation rates. An opt-out system, however, presumes consent even when it is evident that a significant minority are resistant to organ donation. In this article, we defend a mandated choice framework for consent to deceased organ donation. A mandated choice framework, coupled with good public education, would likely increase donation rates. More importantly, however, a mandated choice framework would respect the autonomous preferences of people who do not wish to donate. We focus in particular on the Australian healthcare context, and consider how a mandated choice system could function as an ethical means to increase the organ donation rate in Australia. We make the novel proposal that all individuals who vote at an Australian federal election be required to state their organ donation preferences when voting.

Directed and conditional uterus donation

Uterus transplantation (UTx) is highly anticipated for the benefits that it might bring to individuals wanting to carry a pregnancy in order to reproduce who do not have a functioning...

Acceptance Factors on The Digital ZIS by Muzak and Donors with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) Framework

Entering the era of technology, BAZNAS and LAZ created a digital device called ZIS digital to facilitate the payment method for ZIS funds, namely only by using a cellphone or other gadget that has internet access. The digital ZIS was created to achieve the true potential of the ZIS collection and currently, the 2019 ZIS collection in Bandung City has exceeded the true ZIS potential of IDR 160 billion. The purpose of this study is to identify the dominant factors and factors that determine the preferences of muzak and donors in choosing and using digital ZIS in the city of Bandung. This type of research is quantitative descriptive with preference measurements using the framework of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), then testing the validity and reliability tests. The research method used is a survey method by distributing questionnaires in the form of Google Form. The method used to process and analyze the data is to tabulate the results of the questionnaire with a spreadsheet which is then analyzed using SPSS 22. The sampling technique uses the purposive sampling method as many as 100 muzak and donors who are digital ZIS users in Bandung. Based on the results of questionnaire data processing, it can be concluded that the factors that can determine the preferences of muzak and donors in choosing digital ZIS are perceived ease of use (perception of ease of use of technology) and perceived usefulness (perception of technology usefulness). Among these two factors, the more dominant one in determining the use of digital ZIS is the perceived usefulness factor with an average score of 458.3 where this number indicates a measure of preference or the respondent's interpretation scale, which means strongly agree. The perceived usefulness factor is supported by indicators of increasing user performance, indicators of answering needs, and indicators of simplifying work processes.

So Shines a Good Deed in a Weary World.

So Shines a Good Deed in a Weary World.

The Cold War Origins of Global IR. The Rockefeller Foundation and Realism in Latin America

AbstractThe literature on global international relations (IR) has argued that the discipline develops in the footsteps of world politics, but no sustained attention has been given to more immediate causes such as the funders that pay for IR teaching and scholarship. These donor–recipient relations have only attracted the attention of authors interested in cultural hegemony and those contributing to the recent historiography of IR. Among the latter, some have studied how during the Cold War the Rockefeller Foundation attempted to buttress classical realism in the United States and Western Europe. This article connects and moves forward IR historiography and the global IR literature by shedding light on philanthropic foundations’ attempts to further a specific IR theory—classical realism—and area studies in the global south. The article argues that world politics influenced global IR, but this influence was mediated by highly contingent events. Even a proximate cause like science patronage, let alone “world politics,” is not a sufficient cause capable of determining IR theories and disciplinary boundaries. Donors may achieve some impact but only under specific circumstances such as the ones explored here, that is, the donor is a unitary actor determined to advance its agenda by resorting to conditionality, alternative donors and funding are scarce, the discipline is either poorly or not institutionalized, and the recipient perceives the donor's preferences as legitimate. The article uses previously untapped, fine-grained, primary sources to unravel philanthropy's impact on Latin America's first IR center. Because science patronage is exposed to many sources of indeterminacy and to contingency, donors cannot determine scholarship, which makes cultural hegemony all but impossible. Still, IR scholars need to study their patrons to understand their discipline, in and outside Europe and the United States.

Chemically Induced Chromosomal Interaction (CICI) method to study chromosome dynamics and its biological roles

Numerous intra- and inter-chromosomal contacts have been mapped in eukaryotic genomes, but it remains challenging to link these 3D structures to their regulatory functions. To establish the causal relationships between chromosome conformation and genome functions, we develop a method, Chemically Induced Chromosomal Interaction (CICI), to selectively perturb the chromosome conformation at targeted loci. Using this method, long-distance chromosomal interactions can be induced dynamically between intra- or inter-chromosomal loci pairs, including the ones with very low Hi-C contact frequencies. Measurement of CICI formation time allows us to probe chromosome encounter dynamics between different loci pairs across the cell cycle. We also conduct two functional tests of CICI. We perturb the chromosome conformation near a DNA double-strand break and observe altered donor preference in homologous recombination; we force interactions between early and late-firing DNA replication origins and find no significant changes in replication timing. These results suggest that chromosome conformation plays a deterministic role in homology-directed DNA repair, but not in the establishment of replication timing. Overall, our study demonstrates that CICI is a powerful tool to study chromosome dynamics and 3D genome function.

Docking-guided rational engineering of a macrolide glycosyltransferase glycodiversifies epothilone B

Glycosyltransferases typically display acceptor substrate flexibility but more stringent donor specificity. BsGT-1 is a highly effective glycosyltransferase to glycosylate macrolides, including epothilones, promising antitumor compounds. Here, we show that BsGT-1 has three major regions significantly influencing the glycodiversification of epothilone B based on structural molecular docking, “hot spots” alanine scanning, and site saturation mutagenesis. Mutations in the PSPG-like motif region and the C2 loop region are more likely to expand donor preference; mutations of the flexible N3 loop region located at the mouth of the substrate-binding cavity produce novel epothilone oligosaccharides. These “hot spots” also functioned in homologues of BsGT-1. The glycosides showed significantly enhanced water solubility and decreased cytotoxicity, although the glycosyl appendages of epothilone B also reduced drug permeability and attenuated antitumor efficacy. This study laid a foundation for the rational engineering of other GTs to synthesize valuable small molecules.

Biosynthetic incorporation for visualizing bacterial glycans.

Cell-surface glycans are central to many biological processes, yet methods for their site-selective modification are limited. Strategies for interrogating the structure and function of proteins have been enabled by chemoselective reactions of sidechain functionality for covalent modification, capture, or imaging. However, unlike protein sidechains, glycan building blocks lack distinguishing reactivity. Moreover, glycans are not primary gene products, so encoding glycan variants through genetic manipulation is challenging. Reactive functional groups can be introduced into glycans through metabolic engineering, which involves the generation of modified nucleotide-sugar building blocks. Lipid-linked building blocks, which are also used in glycan biosynthesis, have the advantage that they can be delivered directly to glycosyltransferases to function as surrogate substrates. This process, termed "biosynthetic incorporation," takes advantage of the properties of bacterial glycosyltransferase: they are selective for the products they generate yet promiscuous in their donor preferences. We describe how this strategy can be implemented to label arabinofuranose-containing glycans on the surface of mycobacterial cells. We anticipate that this platform can be expanded to develop chemoselective labeling agents for other important bacterial monosaccharides.