Donor Motivations for Donating to a Nonprofit Without a Previous Relationship

Abstract

The United States of America experienced an economic recession from 2007-2010 affecting nonprofit organizations representing a variety of philanthropic and charitable causes. Nonprofit leaders and development staff must understand what motivates donors to contribute a monetary donation. This quantitative study statistically analyzed the motivations of achievement, affiliation, philanthropy, and power (independent variables) of donors who provided a monetary donation (dependent variable) to a nonprofit without having a previous relationship. Quantitative data represented the personal motivations of individual donors (tourists) providing a monetary donation to a nonprofit Roman Catholic basilica in Florida. To ensure validity the sample did not have a previous relationship with the nonprofit, only first time donors living outside Florida who provided a monetary donation to the basilica were selected to participate in the survey. A survey of the target population of 484 donors living outside of the basilica's home state of Florida resulted in a sample of 216 participants representing 45% of the target population. The motivations of achievement, affiliation, philanthropy, and power were analyzed with an analysis of variance and a single regression analysis. A descriptive statistic analysis indicated the motivations of philanthropy (M=4.0, SD=.62) and achievement ( M=3.7, SD=.83) resulted in the highest mean scores of the four independent variables. An analysis of variance showed there was a significant effect of achievement and philanthropy on the donor's monetary donation at the p<.05 level for the three conditions F (3, 212) = 4.07, p = .003 and F (3, 212) = 2.97, p = .020 respectively. The single regression significantly predicted achievement scores β = -.23, t(3.38) = .00, p < .05 and philanthropy scores β = -.16, t(2.39) = .02, p < .05. The data from this analysis can assist nonprofit organizations structure development campaigns to appeal to specific donor motivations. Future research can create further understanding of specific donor motivations to provide monetary donations to nonprofits in other circumstances than donors who did not have a previous relationship.