ABSTRACT
The issue of why individuals elect to offer their support has received considerable attention with researchers from many different fields studying the topic. A variety of potential motives for giving have been identified including self-interest, altruism, sympathy, empathy, fear, guilt, pity, social justice and the existence of social norms. The arousal of empathy in a donor has consistently been shown to precipitate donations. Empathy may be defined as an individual’s emotional arousal elicited by the expression of emotion in another. The motive “sympathy” has also received attention from fundraisers. Sympathy is a value expressive function that allows the donor to conform to personally held norms. A variety of other potential motives for giving have been identified including fear, guilt and pity. A much better approach would be to explain what tangible difference a donation of the likely size the target individual could offer, would make.
