Donor decision making in a non-profit religious organisation

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The non-profit sector has grown and changed substantially since its origins more than 2 000 years ago. At present there is an increase in organised voluntary activity around the globe, which reflects a set of social and technological changes, as well as an increasing lack of confidence in the ability of the state to render certain vital services. NPOs that do not work in the fields of housing, the aged, HIV/AIDS and education, for instance organisations doing missionary work, are faced with the difficult task of procuring funds within this highly competitive environment.The overall purpose of relationship marketing is customer retention and development, not simply a series of transactions. With this in mind, it seems that relationship marketing has an important role to play in the non-profit sector. Why is it then so difficult to sell brotherhood like soap? To answer this question tools have been developed and adapted to fit the non-profit sector.Donor behaviour plays a crucial role in the survival of an organisation and insights into behaviour can give the organisation an edge over its competitors. In the case of this study the research problem relates to the identification of the dimensions impacting on donor behaviour in religious (Christian) organisations.A conceptual model of donor behaviour in religious non-profit organisations was developed and used for the eventual formulation of 23 hypotheses to guide the study and to represent the possible relationships. For the statistical analysis it was deemed necessary to revise both the model and the proposed hypotheses. The model was split into three models:- Perceptions of non-profit organisations;- Individual donor characteristics; and- Donor perceptions of the non-profit organisation.A thorough overview of the literature was undertaken, mainly to investigate the nature of the non-profit sector in general as well as in South Africa, its marketing and behaviour of its donors. The conceptual model that was developed through the literature study was used to develop a measuring instrument specifically for this study for collecting primary data.It was empirically tested in a religious (Christian) non-profit organisation in South Africa by collecting primary data. Questionnaires were mailed to its whole donor database. The questionnaires returned were captured with the aid of an Excel spreadsheet and merged with data from the donor database. The first step was to assess the validity and reliability of the measurement instrument used. Next, an exploratory factor analysis was done to identify the unique factors evident in the study data. The next step entailed testing the proposed theoretical model by means of the Structural Equation Modelling technique.The results of the data analysis led to the creation of a model suitable for the management of the donors of a Christian missionary organisation. This study is a pioneering study of donor behaviour in South African religious non-profit organisations, in particular Christian organisations. It is clear from the results that donors of religious organisations react differently than donors of other non-profit organisations and therefore that different approaches are needed to secure Christian donor loyalty and trust.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University