Moral Obligation, Fundraising Trust and Online Giving Sustainability: Evidence from China

ABSTRACT

The new information technology brings a new proposition to the practice and theoretical research of online giving. However, there is still a lack of empirical research for the specific causes and mechanism of individuals' participation in online giving, especially how to transform "one-time giving" into "continuous giving". Using the first-hand survey data in the crisis of Covid-2019, the paper finds that the crisis inspired the first online charity donation of college students, but the willingness of the individuals who participated in the online giving for the first time was significantly lower than those who have multiple online giving experience. What's more, there are significant differences in the key factors influencing the two groups of donors to make a continuous online charitable donation in the future. For the individuals who participated in an online giving for the first time, both moral obligation and fundraising trust had significant promoting effects. However, for individuals with multiple online giving experiences, the impact of moral obligation is not significant, and the most important factor is fundraising trust. Therefore, in the practice, improving the social reputation of the organizations and creating a good charity fundraising environment can effectively promote individual continuous online donation, which is an important basic strategy for NPOs to cultivate stable funding sources. Furthermore, when soliciting donations from the public who have participated in charitable donations many times, NPOs could emphasize the actual social benefits of the giving behavior and disseminate the process information of fundraising. However, for the charitable donors who are less involved or potential donors, NPOs should highlight the moral norms and social basic emotions.