Nonprofit organization senior leaders conduct business in an increasingly complex and competitive market environment relying on monetary donations to sustain the capacity of their organizations to meet service requirements. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the strategies that nonprofit organization senior leaders used to motivate donors to make monetary donations to their organizations. The target population of the study was 3 senior leaders of a nonprofit organization in the southeastern United States who implemented effective strategies to motivate donors to make monetary donations to their organization. The conceptual framework used for this study was self-determination theory. Data collection for this study consisted of semistructured participant interviews, a review of public and internal organization documentation, and organization performance outcomes. Data for this study were manually coded and thematically organized. The analysis of the data identified relationships, effective communication, active listening, and social media marketing as 4 key themes affecting donors’ motivation to donate to nonprofit organizations. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to provide practical strategies that nonprofit organization senior leaders can use to motivate donors to make monetary donations to their organizations, thereby enhancing senior leaders’ capacity to provide critical services to members of the communities in their organizations’ dedicated service areas.

Social media's impact on nonprofit organizations' annual fund revenues has not been widely studied. The purpose of this case study was to examine how one organization used Facebook and Twitter to build and maintain relationships with its constituents and how those relationships affected annual fund revenues. The organization selected was a national voluntary health nonprofit that conducts research on pediatric brain tumors causes and treatments and provides support to families facing a diagnosis. Hon and Grunig's measurements for long-term organization-public relationships and Kelly's theory of fundraising were the conceptual basis for this study. Data were collected through interviews with employees and constituents, organizational social media analytics such as Facebook Insights, and a week of Facebook and Twitter content. Data were coded inductively and analyzed using classical content analysis. Results indicate that although both the organization constituents and employees interviewed saw social media as a valuable tool to communicate information, it was not having a direct, immediate effect on annual fund revenues. Recommendations were that the organization leaders consider expanding to other social media platforms and track constituents with whom they frequently interact to determine if they make a gift or fundraise through an event in the future. The positive social change implications of this study include recommendations to nonprofit leaders to connect with their constituents with the cost-effective tool of social media and to track how it affects direct donations or participation in its fundraising events. An organization that can keep its expenses low as it connects with its constituents could direct more of its annual revenues into its mission.

In the last decade, private liberal arts universities have experienced financial difficulties requiring the need to raise private funds. The financial viability of these universities depends on the ability of university presidents to raise money; however, challenges remain to carry out this task. To increase fundraising effectiveness at the university being examined, this case study identified skills and practices of 10 university presidents who achieved fundraising success during their tenure, such as the completion of a capital campaign or the growth of the university's endowment. Transformational leadership style traits were considered to determine their alignment with the successful fundraising behaviors identified. The 10 university presidents were selected to participate through referral sampling that identified peers from the professional networks of study participants that met the selection criteria. The presidents were interviewed, and those data were recorded, transcribed, organized, and coded into emerging themes. Results indicated the importance of setting a vision for the university and implementing behaviors that motivated donors to join that vision. Identified skills were practical applications of a leadership style that were grounded in the importance of personal relationships. The study contributes to positive social change by providing skills and behaviors for university presidents to improve their fundraising effectiveness in order to provide increased resources for universities to better carry out their educational mission.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Credentialing has become an established albeit voluntary—and often debated— part of the fundraising profession. Despite this, scholarly attention to the phenomenon of credentialing for fundraising professionals has been woefully lacking. While the literature has discussed what the benefits of credentialing are to fundraisers and the general public, it has failed to research how particular credentials came to be and why they were created at a particular place and time. This study analyzes the origins of the first fundraising credential, the Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) credential, which was first awarded in 1981. While touching briefly on the phenomenon of mass philanthropy that paved the way for the birth of fundraising as a profession in the early twentieth century, the study concentrates on the way in which early practitioner associations such as the American Association of Fundraising Counsel and the National Association of Fund Raising Executives worked to establish fundraising as a legitimate profession. They fended off external threats from government regulation and capitalized on opportunities to give shape to the profession through the development of criteria for determining professional standing, codes and standards of practice and, eventually, the self-regulatory mechanism of voluntary credentialing. The principal results and conclusions of this study are: 1) while the fundraising profession has been witness to major events impacting American philanthropy in the twentieth century, including the reification of philanthropy as an economic “third sector” through the impact of the Tax Reform Act of 1969, the fundraising profession as a whole has been largely disengaged from these events except when they have directly threatened the economic welfare of the profession; and 2) the creation of the CFRE credential was largely spurred by increased calls for self-regulation of fundraising in the late 1970s.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study investigated choices made by fundraisers when crafting appeals to unknown potential donors. Specifically, it asked if and how fundraisers’ choices vary depending on whether they were raising money for a population that faced societal stigma. Research on fundraising often focuses on donor behavior, without considering the type of the beneficiary and the discretionary decisions made by fundraisers. This study drew on literature about stigma and literature about fundraising communication. It employed mixed methodologies to explore this research question. The first part of the study used an online experimental survey, in which 76 practicing fundraisers wrote an acquisition appeal letter for a nonprofit after random assignment to benefit either clients with mental illness (stigmatized population) or older adults (non-stigmatized population), then answered attitudinal questions about the beneficiary population. Participants believed individuals with mental illness were more stigmatized than older adults. Analysis of the letters using linguistic software showed that fundraisers used more humanizing language when writing about the non-stigmatized population, compared to the stigmatized population. Several aspects of the appeal letters, identified through existing theory, were examined but did not vary at statistically significant levels between the groups. Exploratory factor analysis showed several patterns of elements recurring within the letters. One of these patterns, addressing social expectations, varied significantly by client group. In the second part of the study, semi-structured interviews with fifteen participants showed that writing for the stigmatized client population raised special concerns in communicating with potential donors: many interviewees described identifying client stories and evidence to justify helping stigmatized clients in a way that wasn’t thought as necessary for non-stigmatized clients. They also attempted to mitigate threatening stereotypes to maintain readers’ comfort levels. Fundraisers regularly evaluated how readers were likely to think of different kinds of clients. Fundraisers’ own implicit assumptions also came into play.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / How is charitable giving influenced by other donors’ charitable giving? Do people give more in the presence of other donors who are similar to themselves? Most research suggests that individuals are positively influenced by others who are similar across a variety of behaviors. In the charitable giving contexts, people are more likely to donate (or donate more) to the same cause if others who are similar donate. Yet, prior research has paid little attention to potential non-linear effects of similarity on charitable giving. Is there a certain amount of similarity that is too much? My dissertation investigates this research question through two different methodological approaches, a systematic literature review and an experimental study. The findings suggest the curvilinear effects of similarity on charitable giving (i.e. self-other oversimilarity hypothesis); that is, individuals are more likely to donate (and donate more) in the presence of other generous donors who are moderately similar to themselves. Yet, individuals are less likely to donate (and donate) less in the presence of other generous donors who are in high similarity to themselves. In other words, too much similarity between donors may actually backfire in charitable giving contexts when others give generously. This dissertation consists of a brief overview of similarity (Chapter 1), a systematic literature review (Chapter 2), an experimental study (Chapter 3) and a research proposal (Chapter 4). Chapter 1 in this dissertation identifies the importance of similarity in social relationships. Chapter 2 investigates the effects of similarity on charitable giving and identifies the literature gap. Chapter 3 attempts to fill the gap via developing and testing self-other oversimilarity hypothesis. It further offers practical implications for nonprofit fundraising practices on how to apply similarity between donors to motivate more funding. In order to provide additional empirical evidence that may contribute to theory and practice, and to address certain limitations of the current experimental study, Chapter 4 proposes a new research project to further test self-other oversimilarity hypothesis in the presence of a stingy donor.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In current higher education fundraising models where alumni are aligned with their degree-granting unit, the academic library struggles to match the fundraising outcomes of its campus peers. A survey of seventy-nine fundraisers in academic libraries collected data on fundraising activity. It reveals common practices amongst fundraisers working in this environment and ongoing challenges to success. In a second study, a fundraising model based on social capital is proposed as an alternative to the traditional alumni model. The final study evaluates interviews with thirty-two individuals that further explores the challenges to fundraising success and the efficacy of social capital building as a method to overcome systemic challenges. Interviewees include academic library fundraisers, library deans/directors and university development leaders. Findings reveal a strong interest in a social capital-based approach to fundraising but reveal the necessity to pair the new model with revised fundraiser assessment models capable of measuring these soft skills.

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This study examined the characteristics and predictors of Millennial alumni who donated financially to their alma mater and those who did not by reviewing data from the Alumni Attitude Survey (AAS). The data set was composed of 2,108 Millennial respondents and 1,110 as Generation X respondents. This study can help university foundation and alumni association staff members to determine why their donors, specifically Millennial alumni, give to their institution and how to be more effective in requesting for a financial donation from them. Generating consistent support from alumni and other donors is an economic necessity for postsecondary institutions. As current students graduate, institutions need to know how they can entice these alumni to provide financial support. This dissertation fills the gap in the literature by providing new research on the effect Millennial student involvement has on the likelihood they will become donors to their alma mater. This dissertation used Astin's (1984) involvement theory as a foundation for the research. The connection that alumni have with their alma maters and the outcome of donations after graduation may stem from the connections that these alumni established while involved in activities as undergraduates. Astin's involvement theory provides some insights into identifying the experiences that help to inspire alumni to donate financially and helps institutions identify and devise new ways of using these experiences to help increase donations. The positive emotional experiences from undergraduate involvement may be motivation to donate to one's alma mater. This study identified the involvement characteristics of undergraduate Millennial alumni donors, the differences between these donors and nondonors, and predictors of undergraduate Millennial alumni donor behavior. This study focused on the potential relationship between involvement and student satisfaction and subsequently, found statistically significant variables that influenced Millennial alumni to donate to their alma mater. Specifically, Millennial alumni who were involved in organizations that relate to peer involvement; such as fraternity/sorority involvement, participation in intramural athletics, community service, residence halls participation, and the alma mater providing or encouraging relationships with other students, encouraging the attendance at athletic events, providing student leadership opportunities and providing opportunities to interact with alumni relate to one donating to their alma mater. These variables were statistically significant, but they were also practically significant, meaning that the findings do make a difference in helping to identify factors that lead to Millennial alumni to donate to their alma mater. The findings in this dissertation reiterate the importance of student engagement on the campus. An institution's faculty and staff involvement with undergraduates, specifically those staff who work directly with student organizations, are vital for student engagement that lead to graduation and future donations as an alumnus.

Community colleges generate only 2% of the total charitable funds raised by higher education institutions in the United States. In an era when America needs its community colleges to be active public sector partners in economic development and workforce training, state funding has been drastically cut, and other traditional funding sources are not making up for the much-needed funds. Forward thinking community college leaders must turn to their foundations as an important revenue source to offset the impact of budget cuts and sustain educational excellence and accessibility. But with limited resources for each institution to employ a professional fund raising staff, it is unclear if state system foundations can create programs to help bridge the gap for individual community colleges. The purpose of this study, guided by the organizational theory of examining an organization’s performance as part of an entire system and not individual factors, was to examine multi-year trends of public community colleges in the states of Virginia and Maryland that have participated in the Voluntary Support for Education (VSE) survey between the years of 2007-2012. The study was limited in scope, but could be the foundation for a broader framework of study to determine the fundraising significance and impact of state-level system community college foundations and the vice presidents of institutional advancement that lead them. The study consists of a review of available literature on institutional advancement in higher education and the quantitative study of data collected over a 5 year period through the VSE survey. Independent sample t-tests were used to determine if the mean difference on a particular group characteristic was statically significant for each dependent variable. The findings of the study did not affirm that having an experienced vice president of institutional advancement leading a state-level foundation leads to greater success in terms of private funds raised by community colleges of various sizes and resources within the system. However, this is the first known study to compare community college fund raising from a state-level approach, therefore the researcher concludes that increased emphasis on building a state-wide culture of philanthropy for community colleges is needed.