ABSTRACT
This chapter brings together different theories that explain motivations of donors to provide financial support to the nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and introduces some variables that explain why some entities obtain more resources than others. For this purpose, the chapter presents a literature review of the most relevant publications in terms of donor motivations, theories on donor behavior, as well as the role of socio-economic factors, welfare state models, and information technologies. Also, it introduces the contribution of different agents around this topic: governments, to supervise and control the NPOs’ activities, and both umbrella and watchdog organizations that facilitate the process of choice for donors, among others. The chapter also reviews the main academic contributions on corporate donors, which varies from commercial motives to increase the company’s profit to striving to contribute to the common good. So, NPOs are facing a constantly growing pressure to find sources of funding for their activities, which emerges as another element of the organization’s global strategy at the service of the social objectives of the entity.
