Impulsive donation decisions during online browsing of charity websites

Although online fundraising by charitable organisations is now commonplace, many aspects of effective online fundraising remain unexamined. In particular, little is known about the nature and determinants of impulsive donation decisions taken by browsers of charity websites. This empirical study attempted to help fill this important gap in current knowledge about online fundraising via an investigation of the antecedents of impulsive online giving to a hospice organisation in the south of England. Two hundred and thirty-nine donors who stated that their gifts had been made impulsively and 223 donors whose online gifts were reported as having been pre-planned completed a questionnaire that explored, inter alia, a person's socio-demographic characteristics, level of impulsiveness and attitude towards impulsive behaviour, charity donation history, prior knowledge of hospice issues, subjective norms and personal involvement with charity giving. The main determinants of impulsive donations were identified and the profiles of various types of impulsive giver were established. Relevant matters were investigated in the contexts of two types of web page design: emotive and informative. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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