The Champion Effect in Peer-to-Peer Giving: Successful Campaigns Highlight Fundraisers More Than Causes

Abstract

Online peer-to-peer giving is an emerging charity context that has rarely been investigated. Using a unique combination of survey and behavioral data from 1,647 online peer-to-peer fundraisers (whom we call “champions”), we tested empirically the influence of different best practices on fundraising success in this novel giving context. Across two samples, we found the fundraiser’s identification with the cause led them to engage in more best practice actions, which in turn led to greater fundraising success. However, not all actions were equally influential. Actions that made the champion salient—namely those relating to solicitation and those that signaled the fundraiser was highly invested in their campaign—were the strongest predictors of fundraising success, together explaining 28 times the variance accounted for by actions signaling charity efficacy. Thus, fundraisers will have more success by championing themselves than by promoting the charity in question: a finding with important applied and theoretical implications.