Theobald, Sarah and Phairor, Klairoong Hawa (2022) Exploring the factors that influence American millennial women's donation intent in non-profit social media marketing. In: 2022 AMA Marketing and Public Policy Conference, 9th - 11th June 2022, Austin, TX. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Research Question
The non-profit sector is under tremendous pressure to produce high-quality outcomes in the most productive way possible. Non-profit leaders' choices must also serve the organization's sustainability goals in the prevailing era of budget cuts, dwindling resources, and intense competition for donors (Goldkind, 2015). As such, social media campaigns are a particularly valuable tool for financially restricted non-profit organizations, as they provide an opportunity to spread a message or idea to a large group of people (Rudov et al., 2016) at virtually zero marginal cost (Lacetera et al., 2016). Around seven in ten Americans now use social media to communicate with each other (Pew Research Center, 2019), thus, proving the important role of social media marketing in the organization’s overall integrated marketing communication plan. Non-profit organizations have increasingly sought to understand what drives young American donors to engage, interact, and take action on social media platforms. American millennial women are found to value social responsibility with 57% admitting that their purchasing decisions are driven by the brand’s values and societal issues they support (Netzer, 2020b). This research, therefore, seeks to identify the factors that influence American millennial women to donate through social media marketing.
Method and Data
The data were collected from American millennial women using an online survey. Questionnaire questions were adapted from previous studies (e.g., Birch et al., 2018; Botha and Reyneke, 2016; Prakash et al., 2019) to measure six constructs - donation intent, self-congruitive engagement, normative and informational social influence, egoistic and altruistic motivations. Structured, self-completed, questionnaires were distributed in Facebook groups that primarily consist of female millennials across the United States. Members of the group come from varying backgrounds and offer many different perspectives. Out of 1,205 recorded responses, 1,124 samples were deemed suitable for further analysis. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to determine the strength of the six factors, as well the average variance extracted (AVE) and the composite reliability (CR). The ordinal logistic regression and a likelihood ratio chi-square test were carried out. The result shows that there is a significant improvement in the fit of the Final Model over the null model [x2(3) = 124.632, p < .001]. In addition, Deviance [x2(7021) = 3855.802, p = 1.000] and Pearson [x2(7021) = 6990.407, p = .600], chi-square tests were also conducted, and the results show that that data are a good fit to the model.
Summary of Findings
The results confirm that self-congruity, social influences (both normative and informational), and altruistic motivations are significant predictors of donation intent. American millennial women are more likely to donate to non-profit causes they perceive as possessing a similar set of images and personality qualities to their own. Self-congruity helps simplify the decision-making process and reduce dissonance. Furthermore, the millennial’s empathic connection with non-profit causes is found to have a positive impact on donations. This empathic connection may be caused by emotional appeals that emphasize the needs of others. This research found altruistic motivations are more likely to elicit volunteer intentions and monetary donations than egotistic motivations. Finally, constant transfer and sharing of information and knowledge on social media platforms explain why informational influence is more likely to influence American millennial women than normative influence. In conclusion, social media marketing strategies for non-profit causes should have an altruistic appeal. The potential donors should be able to share the news of their donation with their friends and promote causes they identify with on social media.
Key Contributions
While past studies have yielded some important insights into social media marketing, little research has been conducted to identify the factors that influence American millennial women to engage with non-profit social media marketing campaigns and make donation decisions. This research provides empirical evidence to support a causal relationship between self-congruity, normative and informational influence, altruistic motivations, and donation intent in the social media context. This research also brought together the dominant theoretical concepts in the field of consumer behaviors. The self-concept theory, social influence theory, and motivational appeals have been studied in other industries, (Birch et al., 2018; Botha and Reyneke, 2016; Lee and Hong, 2016; Prakash et al., 2019;) in other facets of marketing, (Kressmann et al., 2006; Lee et al., 2006;) and never together as one study (Carboni & Maxwell, 2015; Change, 2014; Lacetera et al., 2016; Waters and Lo, 2012;).

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	social media marketing; donation; altruism; social influence; self-congruity; American millennials
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Business
Last Modified:	31 Aug 2023 11:50
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/35482

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