Social Identification and Charitable Giving: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
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Abstract
To enhance their effectiveness, nonprofit fundraisers may wish to harness the power of identification. Informed by Social Identity Theory and Charitable Triad Theory, we meta-analyzed 40 years of research on social identification and charitable giving to quantify the overall relationship and conducted meta-regressions to investigate moderators. Across 109 effect sizes drawn from 89,570 participants, we found a medium-sized relationship ( r = .29). Identification with other donors ( r = .23), beneficiaries ( r = .24), and fundraisers ( r = .36) were all positively associated with giving. Strength of identification ( r = .32) was more strongly associated with giving than was shared identity (i.e., in-group vs out-group target; r = .15). Effects were smaller for actual behavior ( r = .20) than for self-reported giving ( r = .33) and were only found when giving was mediated through charities ( r = .34) but not when giving directly to individuals ( r = .04). We include practical recommendations for ways that fundraisers can effectively leverage the power of identification in recruitment campaigns, copywriting, and selection of spokespeople.
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