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No browsing, no donating: the impact of title and forwarder on browsing intention of online charity fundraising

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Abstract

The Internet has enabled charitable fundraising to raise money through various social media platforms. However, individuals’ avoidance behaviors toward charitable fundraising information are very common. Most people tend to choose not to browse the fundraising information. The avoidance behaviors will lead to interruption of donation process and affect subsequent donation behaviors. Using data collected from professional online survey platform, Study 1 with 274 responses were conducted to examine the influence of browsing on subsequent donation behaviors. And Study 2 with 290 responses examined the influence of fundraising title and information forwarder on donor's browsing intention. The results show that both the emotional titles and the forwarder’s close relationship with the donor will trigger higher browsing intentions. In addition, perceived credibility as well as cognitive and emotional empathy mediate the influence. Furthermore, a donor’s past donation experience moderates the relationship between emotional empathy and browsing intention. This study provides a theoretical system of donor’s overall donation behaviors and provides practical suggestions for effective charitable fundraising through social media platforms.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72172102), Tianjin Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project Office (Grant No. TJGL17-012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Chundong Zheng & Huan Niu

  2. School of Education, Tianjin University, NO. 92, Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin, China

    Han Wang

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  1. Chundong Zheng
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  2. Huan Niu
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  3. Han Wang
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Contributions

The study conception and framework design were performed by [Chundong Zheng]. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [Han Wang], and the first draft of the manuscript was written by [Huan Niu]. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. [Chundong Zheng] and [Han Wang] read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Han Wang.

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Zheng, C., Niu, H. & Wang, H. No browsing, no donating: the impact of title and forwarder on browsing intention of online charity fundraising. Int Rev Public Nonprofit Mark 21, 27–49 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12208-022-00361-3

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