Giving to Be Seen: the Influence of Facebook Charitable Advertisements on Conspicuous Donation Behavior

Abstract

The arduous financial environments that nonprofit organizations face today motivate nonprofits to continuously search and leverage new communication platforms such as social media to approach a wider individual donor base. This thesis examines whether a Facebook charitable appeal promoting a donation via Facebook Gifts may attract Facebook users to give for conspicuousness (a public display of a donation behavior). Findings of this thesis revealed a gender difference in responses to the Facebook charitable appeal due to the gender difference in self-construals such that men were more likely to give via Facebook Gifts when the ad promoting the donation via Facebook Gifts signaled a lower level of popularity (with fewer "Likes") whereas women tended to give via Facebook Gifts when the ad signaled a higher level of popularity (with more "Likes"). This thesis has theoretical contributions to existing literature on self-construals and prosocial behavior as well as significant practical implications for nonprofits to design compelling, effective charitable appeals to attract male and female social media users respectively.