The art of giving. An exploration of motivational aspects linked to charitable contributions and attendance at events with a charitable purpose.

Abstract

Aims: 1. To establish why people give to charitable cases. 2. To analyse how charities and event organisers use those motivations to get individuals to participate. 3. To research how charities can use those motivations more effectively. Firstly, the researcher read what other authors have found on why people donate, to which charities they donate, how much and how often they donate and also if there are an patterns or differences between genders. Next, it was investigated how charities attract potential attendees to their events. Briefly, the researcher learnt that the most common reasons people donate is to make a difference, to help others, because of personal experiences or because of a specific cause. Also, charities attract individuals to their events by various marketing methods e.g. the internet, moving adverts and focusing on a certain aspect of the event. The researcher was to reveal how charities and event organisers use those motivational aspects to get them to participate in their events. Therefore, the researcher went on to complete the research through a mixed method. The quantitative method was the questionnaires distributed to 135 individuals: students, family, friends and customers at the family farm. It was found that the most common reasons people donate are to make a difference and help others, because of their conscious and guilt, because of a specific cause and because of personal/family experiences. It seems that individuals donate on a regular basis as they become more mature. The qualitative method undertaken was interviews with five charities. The literature review showed how event organisers and charities draw people to their events. But, the gap in the researcher was how they use the motivations to draw them to the events and how the motivations can be used more effectively. It was established that the charities use similar methods through advertising but have an element of the event which makes it unique. This is the area they focus on and ensure they know the target market and their motivations. The conclusion was that motivations can be used more effectively by raising public awareness through communication, distributing relevant information and up dates on research and progress. This will create effective advertising strategies and will use the motivations and attract individuals to events.