The Future of Fundraising: Motivations for Participating in Facebook Fundraisers and Implications of Social Capital
Keywords:
Social capital, Facebook fundraiser, Social mediaAbstract
In 2017, Facebook created a platform for philanthropic fundraising that allowed users to ask their friends to donate to a specific non-profit organization. This study aims to identify unique individual and network characteristics of those who choose to donate to these campaigns, as well as explore the potential relationships between bridging and bonding social capital and participation in a Facebook fundraiser, and identify motivations for participation. Results from an online survey of active Facebook users (N = 167) demonstrate that those who donate to Facebook fundraisers have higher scores in social capital, altruism, self-monitoring and are motivated to donate by perceived poster genuineness, relation to the organization, and demonstrating their own goodwill to their network. Results from this project can be utilized to help inform the growth of prosocial campaigns on social networking sites.
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Snyder, M. (1974). The self-monitoring of expressive behavior. Journal of personality and social psychology, 30, 526-537.
Snyder, M., & Gangestad, S. (1986). On the nature of self-monitoring: Matters of assessment, matters of validity. Journal of personality and social psychology, 51(1), 125-139.
Su, C. C., & Chan, N. K. (2017). Predicting social capital on Facebook: The implications of use intensity, perceived content desirability, and Facebook-enabled communication practices. Computers in Human Behavior, 72, 259-268.
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Wallace, E., Buil, I., & De Chernatony, L. (2017). When does “liking” a charity lead to donation behaviour? European Journal of Marketing, 51(11/12), 2002-2029.
Walther, J. B. (2007). Selective self-presentation in computer-mediated communication: Hyperpersonal dimensions of technology, language, and cognition. Computers in Human Behavior, 23(5), 2538-2557.
Waters, R. D., Burnett, E., Lamm, A., & Lucas, J. (2009). Engaging stakeholders through social networking: How nonprofit organizations are using Facebook. Public relations review, 35(2), 102-106.
Williams, D. (2006). On and off the’Net: Scales for social capital in an online era. Journal of computer-mediated communication, 11(2), 593-628.
Chang, P. F., Whitlock, J., & Bazarova, N. N. (2018). “To Respond or not to Respond, that is the Question”: The Decision-Making Process of Providing Social Support to Distressed Posters on Facebook. Social Media + Society, 4(1).
Dawel, A., Wright, L., Irons, J., Dumbleton, R., Palermo, R., O’Kearney, R., & McKone, E. (2017). Perceived emotion genuineness: normative ratings for popular facial expression stimuli and the development of perceived-as-genuine and perceived-as-fake sets. Behavior research methods, 49(4), 1539-1562.
Dibble, J. L., Levine, T. R., & Park, H. S. (2012). The unidimensional relationship closeness scale (URCS): Reliability and validity evidence for a new measure of relationship closeness. Psychological assessment, 24(3), 565.
Donath, J., & boyd, d. (2004). Public displays of connection. BT technology Journal, 22(4), 71-82.
Egan, K. G., Koff, R. N., & Moreno, M. A. (2013). College students’responses to mental health status updates on Facebook. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 34, 46–51.
Ellison, N. B., Gray, R., Lampe, C., & Fiore, A. T. (2014). Social capital and resource requests on Facebook. New media & society, 16(7), 1104-1121.
Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook “friends:” Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites. Journal of computer-mediated communication, 12(4), 1143-1168.
Gosselin, P., Beaupré, M., & Boissonneault, A. (2002). Perception of genuine and masking smiles in children and adults: Sensitivity to traces of anger. The journal of genetic psychology, 163(1), 58-71.
Granovetter, M. S. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360–1380.
Kim, D. H., Seely, N. K., & Jung, J. H. (2017). Do you prefer, Pinterest or Instagram? The role of image-sharing SNSs and self-monitoring in enhancing ad effectiveness. Computers in human behavior, 70, 535-543.
Kim, Y., Sohn, D., & Choi, S. M. (2011). Cultural difference in motivations for using social network sites: A comparative study of American and Korean college students. Computers in human behavior, 27(1), 365-372.
Kowalski, C. M., Rogoza, R., Vernon, P. A., & Schermer, J. A. (2018). The Dark Triad and the self-presentation variables of socially desirable responding and self-monitoring. Personality and Individual Differences, 120, 234-237.
Krumhuber, E., & Kappas, A. (2005). Moving smiles: The role of dynamic components for the perception of the genuineness of smiles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 29(1), 3-24.
Lennox, R. D., & Wolfe, R. N. (1984). Revision of the Self-Monitoring Scale. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46(6), 1349-1364.
Li, H., & McDougle, L. (2017). Information source reliance and charitable giving decisions. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 27(4), 549-560.
Li, X., Chen, W., & Popiel, P. (2015). What happens on Facebook stays on Facebook? The implications of Facebook interaction for perceived, receiving, and giving social support. Computers in human behavior, 51, 106-113.
Lyons, K. (2020). Australian comedian breaks Facebook record by raising $32 million for wildfires. The verge. https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/8/21056717/australia-wildfires-
fundraiser-facebook-record
Ma, W. W., & Chan, A. (2014). Knowledge sharing and social media: Altruism, perceived online attachment motivation, and perceived online relationship commitment. Computers in human behavior, 39, 51-58.
McGloin, R., & Oeldorf-Hirsch, A. (2018). Challenge Accepted! Evaluating the Personality and Social Network Characteristics of Individuals Who Participated in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The journal of social media in society, 7(1), 443-455.
Muralidharan, S., Rasmussen, L., Patterson, D., & Shin, J. H. (2011). Hope for Haiti: An analysis of Facebook and Twitter usage during the earthquake relief efforts. Public relations review, 37(2), 175-177.
Nabi, R. L., Prestin, A., & So, J. (2013). Facebook friends with (health) benefits? Exploring social network site use and perceptions of social support, stress, and well-being. Cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking, 16(10), 721-727.
O’Cass, A. (2000). An assessment of consumers product, purchase decision, advertising and consumption involvement in fashion clothing. Journal of economic psychology, 21(5), 545-576.
Oeldorf-Hirsch, A., Birnholtz, J., & Hancock, J. T. (2017). Your post is embarrassing me: Face threats, identity, and the audience on Facebook. Computers in human behavior, 73, 92-99.
Oeldorf-Hirsch, A., & McGloin, R. (2017). Identifying the predictors of participation in Facebook Pictivism Campaigns. Social media + society, 3(3).
Oh, S., & Syn, S. Y. (2015). Motivations for sharing information and social support in social media: A comparative analysis of Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, YouTube, and Flickr. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66(10), 2045-2060.
Perrin, A. & Anderson, M. (2019). Share of U.S. adults using social media, including Facebook, is mostly unchanged since 2018. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/10/share-of-u-s-adults-using-social-media-including-facebook-is-mostly unchanged-since-2018/
Pornsakulvanich, V. (2018). Excessive use of Facebook: The influence of self-monitoring and Facebook usage on social support. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, 39(1), 116-121.
Price, L. L., Feick, L. F., & Guskey, A. (1995). Everyday market helping behavior. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 14(2), 255-266.
Putnam, R.D. (2000). Bowling Alone. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Rains, S. A., & Brunner, S. R. (2018). The outcomes of broadcasting self-disclosure using new communication technologies: Responses to disclosure vary across one’s social network. Communication Research, 45(5), 659-687.
Ranney, J. D., & Troop-Gordon, W. (2020). The role of popularity and digital self-monitoring in adolescents' cyberbehaviors and cybervictimization. Computers in Human Behavior, 102, 293-302.
Saxton, G. D., & Wang, L. (2014). The social network effect: The determinants of giving through social media. Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 43(5), 850-868.
Sharma, A. (2018). People raise $300M through birthday fundraisers in first year. Facebook newsroom. Retrieved from: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/08/people-raise-300m-through-birthday-fundraisers-in-first-year/
Snyder, M. (1974). The self-monitoring of expressive behavior. Journal of personality and social psychology, 30, 526-537.
Snyder, M., & Gangestad, S. (1986). On the nature of self-monitoring: Matters of assessment, matters of validity. Journal of personality and social psychology, 51(1), 125-139.
Su, C. C., & Chan, N. K. (2017). Predicting social capital on Facebook: The implications of use intensity, perceived content desirability, and Facebook-enabled communication practices. Computers in Human Behavior, 72, 259-268.
Statista research department (2016). Average number of Facebook friends of users in the United States. https://www.statista.com/statistics/398532/us-facebook-user-network-size/
Wallace, E., Buil, I., & De Chernatony, L. (2017). When does “liking” a charity lead to donation behaviour? European Journal of Marketing, 51(11/12), 2002-2029.
Walther, J. B. (2007). Selective self-presentation in computer-mediated communication: Hyperpersonal dimensions of technology, language, and cognition. Computers in Human Behavior, 23(5), 2538-2557.
Waters, R. D., Burnett, E., Lamm, A., & Lucas, J. (2009). Engaging stakeholders through social networking: How nonprofit organizations are using Facebook. Public relations review, 35(2), 102-106.
Williams, D. (2006). On and off the’Net: Scales for social capital in an online era. Journal of computer-mediated communication, 11(2), 593-628.
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