Emerging market donors: do altruism and guilt influence donation behaviour?

Abstract

Worldwide, the needs of NGOs are ever expanding, while donor behaviour in the largest donor nations is changing. Currently, giving behaviour has decreased in Western countries and donor fatigue is ever prevalent. Hence NGOs are looking predominantly to emerging markets in Africa, South America and Asia as there has been a surge in giving behaviour. The problem lies in historical disinvestment of donor behavioural studies within these markets. Therefore, this specific study looked at emerging market donors from South Africa and their motivations to make a monetary donation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the reasons for giving. Prior research in this field identified the constructs “altruism” that consists of pure and impure altruism, that is, warm glow, reciprocal and prestige; and “guilt” that consists of existential and anticipatory guilt An online web survey was sent out to the donor database of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Southern Africa, through purposive sampling. A total of 883 surveys were completed. The data were first analysed using an exploratory factor analysis before more tests (Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U and post hoc) were used to investigate differences between age, gender and population groups. The results of the study show that existential guilt is the most prevalent factor within the South African market. However, there are differences spotted between the genders and specifically the white population group in comparison with the other groups. Secondly, impure altruism is the second most prevalent factor, with behavioural differences spotted in older donor groups (warm glow). There were also differences noted among the different population groups and their altruistic tendencies (pure altruism, recognition and warm glow). Keywords: NGO, donor behaviour, altruism, guilt, warm glow, motivational factors, South Africa, emerging market, prosocial behaviour