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Executive Summary
Despite growing competition for resources, government assistance, and consumer support, charities continue to provide numerous vital services to society, ranging from health care to disaster relief. Increased need for charitable support has necessitated that nonprofit organizations seek out the most effective ways to communicate their causes to consumers. However, previous research has produced conflicting results to the question whether charities should motivate donors by using self-benefit appeals (i.e., that highlight the benefits for the donor) or other-benefit appeals (i.e., that highlight the benefits for the recipient of the donation). The current research investigates the conditions under which other-benefit (self-benefit) appeals are more effective than self-benefit (other-benefit) appeals in influencing donation intentions and behaviors (regarding both volunteer time and monetary donations) by examining the moderating role of public self-image concerns.

Across five studies, the authors find evidence for the efficacy of other-benefit (versus self-benefit) appeals when the appeal is made in a public setting. Conversely, they find evidence that self-benefit appeals can be more successful than other benefit appeals when the appeal is more private in nature. They suggest that the underlying mechanism behind these findings is consumers’ desire to make a positive impression on others and to adhere to prevailing norms. Because society generally expects a person to make donations out of concern for the recipient and not for him- or herself, other-benefit appeals tend to outperform self-benefit appeals in public environments. In private, when the focus is on the individual self, self-benefit appeals outperform other-benefit appeals.

The findings suggest that managers should match the way the donation is requested to the degree to which public self-image concerns are activated in a given context. If the donation request is private, marketers should use appeals that highlight the benefits the donor will obtain (e.g., tax returns, feeling good about oneself). If the donation response is more public in nature, marketers should highlight the benefits to others. Indeed, charities often engage in relatively private (e.g., direct mail solicitations, appeals for donor support over the Internet) and relatively public (e.g., special events, personal fundraising) fundraising and recruitment activities simultaneously. The results suggest that nonprofit marketers should not uniformly use one appeal across these different execution contexts and instead should tailor the appeal to effectively match the setting.

Biography
Katherine White is Associate Professor of Marketing in the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. She completed her PhD at the University of British Columbia. Her current research focuses on how social psychological processes influence consumer behavior. She has recently been identified as a Young Scholar by the Marketing Science Institute, and her work has been published in Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Journal of Consumer Psychology.

John Peloza is Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Segal Graduate School of Business at Simon Fraser University. His research specializes in corporate social responsibility and prosocial consumer behaviors. His work has also been published in Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Management, California Management Review, and Journal of Business Ethics.

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