Prompted by the scandal in 2018 concerning sexist behaviour at the Presidents Club’s charity gala in London in the UK and by the emerging literature within the field of philanthropy that finds generational differences in donor motivation and behaviour, this study examines whether the charity gala continues to be a relevant method of fundraising.
Taking a mixed-methods research approach, using surveys and interviews, the study captures the views and attitudes of 108 affluent donors and 53 fundraisers in the UK. Aside from a few minor differences, the study finds that donors across generations share similar attitudes towards galas, concluding that this fundraising method is still relevant, providing the charities have willing supporters with appropriate social networks.
The findings, of interest to scholars and practitioners alike, address a gap in empirical evidence regarding donor attitudes towards a specific type of fundraising as well as contributing to the broader discussion as to why people engage with philanthropy.
Adloff, F. (2016) Approaching philanthropy from a social theory perspective, in J. Tobias (ed) The Routledge Companion to Philanthropy, Abingdon: Routledge, pp 56–66.
Andreoni, J. (1998) Toward a theory of charitable fund-raising, Journal of Political Economy, 106 (6): 1186–213.
Andreoni, J. (2006) Philanthropy, in S. Kolm and J. Ythier (eds) Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Altruism and Reciprocity, Oxford: Elsevier, pp 1202–35.
Andreoni, J. and Rao, J. (2011) The power of asking: how communication affects selfishness, empathy and altruism, Journal of Public Economics, 95: 513–20. doi: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.12.008
Barman, E. (2007) An institutional approach to donor control: from dyadic ties to a field-level analysis, American Journal of Sociology, 112(5): 1416–57. doi: 10.1086/511802
Barman, E. (2017) The social bases of philanthropy, Annual Review of Sociology, 43: 22.1–22.20. doi: 10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053524
Bekkers, R. and Wiepking, P. (2007) Generosity and Philanthropy: A Literature Review [Online], https://generosityresearch.nd.edu/assets/17402/generosity_and_philanthropy_revised.pdf.
Bell, J. and Waters, S. (2014) Doing Your Reserach Project, 6th edn, Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Berman, M. (2007) It’s not the donors – its the world, Alliance, 1 March, https://www.alliancemagazine.org/feature/it-s-not-the-donors-it-s-the-world/
Birkwood, S. (2016) Is the Gala Ball the Cinderella of Fundraising? [Online], https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/gala-ball-cinderella-fundraising/fundraising/article/1410245
Breeze, B. (2016) How new is the ‘new philanthropy’?, in M. Moody and B. Breeze, The Philanthropy Reader, Abingdon: Routledge, pp 455–9.
Breeze, B. (2017a) Million Pound Donors Report 2017 [Online], https://www.coutts.com/insight-articles/news/2017/million-pound-donors-report-2017.html?extcam=donorsreport
Breeze, B. (2017b) The New Fundraisers, Bristol: Policy Press.
Breeze, B. and Lloyd, T. (2013) Richer Lives: Why Rich People Give, London: Directory of Social Change.
Bryman, A. (2016) Social Research Methods, 5th edn, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Charities Aid Foundation (2012) Mind The Gap, West Malling: Charities Aid Foundation.
Chapman, C.M., Masser, B.M. and Louis, W.R. (2019) The champion effect in peer-to-peer giving: successful campaigns highlight fundraisers more than causes, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 48(3): 572–92. doi: 10.1177/0899764018805196
Cialdini, R. (2007) Influence, 3rd edn, New York, NY: Harper Collins.
Creswell, J. (2015) A Concise Introduction to Mixed Methods Research, London: Sage.
Dalsgaard, S. (2007) I do it for the chocolate, Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 8(1): 107–17.
de Las Casas, L., van Poortvliet, M., Abercrombie, R. and Bagwell, S. (2013) Money for Good: Donor Segmentation Research, London: New Philanthropy Capital.
Ferris, J. (2015) Is This a New Golden Age of Philanthropy?, Los Angeles, CA: University of Southern California, The Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy.
Goldseker, S. and Moody, M. (2017) Generation Impact: How the Next Gen Donors are Revolutionizing Giving, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Hall, P. (1847) The Charity Ball: A Letter to Major-General Jervois, Bath: Binns and Goodwin.
Harbaugh, T. (1996) What do donations buy? A model of philanthropy based on prestige and warm glow, Journal of Public Economics, 30 May: 269–84.
Hart, C. (2007) Doing your Masters Dissertation, London: Sage Publications.
Howe, N. and Strauss, W. (2007) The next 20 years: how customer and workforce attitudes will evolve, Harvard Business Review, July – August: 41–52.
Jones, S. (2013) Bubble bursts for hedge fund gala that celebrated age of excess, Financial Times Online, https://www.ft.com/content/de8bc448-b008-11e2-8d07-00144feabdc0
Kottasz, R. (2004) Differences in the donor behavior characteristics of young affluent males and females: empirical evidence from Britain, Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 15(2): 181–202. doi: 10.1023/B:VOLU.0000033180.43496.09
Lloyd, S. (2002) Pleasing spectacles and elegant dinners: conviviality, benevolence, and charity anniversaries in eighteenth-century London, Journal of British Studies, 41: 23–57. doi: 10.1086/386253
MacAskill, W. (2016) Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference, London: Guardian Faber Publishing.
Marriage, M. (2018) Men only: inside the charity fundraiser where hostesses are put on show, Financial Times, 23 January, https://www.ft.com/content/075d679e-0033-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5
Monaghan, A. (2018) The charities rejecting presidents club donations over scandal, The Guardian, 24 January, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/24/the-charities-rejecting-presidents-club-donations-over-scandal
Ostrower, F. (1995) Why the Wealthy Give, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Pasha-Robinson (2018) Presidents Club: what happened at the men-only charity event at centre of sexual harassment scandal, and who attended?, Independent, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/president-club-what-happened-who-went-guestlist-charities-dorchester-hotel-groping-women-men-only-a8175611.html
Pharoah, C. and Walker, C. (2015) More to Give, London: Centre for Giving and Philanthropy.
Scharf, K. and Smith, S. (2016) Relational altruism and giving in social groups, Journal of Public Economics, (141): 1–10. doi: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.06.001
Sergeant, A. and Jay, E. (2014) Fundraising Management, 3rd edn, London: Routledge.
Singer, P. (2015) The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically, Yale: Yale University Press.
Sokolowski, S.W. (1996) Show me the way to the next worthy deed: towards a microstructural theory of volunteering and giving, Voluntas, 7(3): 259–78. doi: 10.1007/BF02354118
Tempel, E., Seiler, T. and Burlingame, D. (2016) Achieving Excellence in Fundraising, 4th edn, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Thayer, A. and Feldman, D. (2016) Generational differences in giving, in E. Tempel, T. L. Seiler and D. Burlingame (eds) Achieving Excellence in Fundraising, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, pp 169–84.
Useem, M. (1979) The social organization of the American business elite and participation of corporation directors in the governance of American institutions, American Sociological Review, 44(4): 553–72, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2094587.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A253110203f8691f9178429bd40e9227f. doi: 10.2307/2094587
Warrington, K. (2005) ‘Grasping gratitude’: charity and hospital finance in late-Victorian London, in M. Daunton (ed) Charity, Self-Interest and Welfare in English Past, London: Taylor Frances e-Library, chapter 8.
Weaver, R. and Stewart, H. (2018) Presidents Club to close down after claims of harassment at hostess gala, The Guardian, 24 January, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/24/guest-list-presidents-club-all-male-charity-gala
Webber, D. (2004) Understanding charity fundraising events, International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 9: 122–34. doi: 10.1002/nvsm.239
Weinryb, N. and Turunen, J. (2017) Fundraising as a theatrical event, International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 22(1594). doi: 10.1002/nvsm.1594
Weipking, P. and Handy, F. (2015) Introduction, in P. Weipking and F. Handy (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 3–9.
Yoruk, B. (2009) How responsive are charitable donors to requests to give?, Journal of Public Economics, 93: 111–17. doi: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2009.06.001
May 2022 onwards | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 601 | 373 | 24 |
Full Text Views | 374 | 3 | 0 |
PDF Downloads | 383 | 4 | 0 |
Institutional librarians can find more information about free trials here