Approaches to Charitable Giving and Perceptions of Organizational Effectiveness Among Midlevel Donors

Abstract

For decades, scholars have devoted attention to identifying the giving habits of charitable donors, yet the behaviors of midlevel donors have not been independently considered. This study examined midlevel donors’ approaches to charitable giving and the extent to which they give to effective organizations. Operationalized as giving between U.S.$2,000 and U.S.$20,000 annually, we analyzed descriptive statistics and multivariate probit models of 1,260 midlevel donors using a novel study. We found that respondents were least likely to engage in ad hoc giving and most likely to give to organizations due to personal connections or prior research. However, while caring about a cause or issue was consistently and positively associated with giving to organizations that respondents viewed as effective, efforts to understand the organization’s work and the broader causes or issues were not. Our results suggest that identifying midlevel donors’ chosen causes is the first of several steps to giving to effective organizations.