Donate time or money? The determinants of donation intention in online crowdfunding

Abstract

Compared with traditional charities, donation-based crowdfunding has many novel characteristics. Among the variety of factors that influence potential donors before they develop a donation intention, which are the main ones influencing the intention to donate online? The purpose of this paper is to investigate the key potential determinants of both time and money donations. This study attempts to combine the theory of planned behavior and norm activation theory with social presence theory to conceptualize and develop an integration framework to measure the donation intention. The results of the structural equation modeling, based on 350 valid questionnaire responses received from November 19 to December 19, 2018, suggest that the dependent variable of time donations is significantly affected by social presence, trust, and perceived behavioral control. As for the dependent variable of money donations, only subjective norm has an insignificant effect. The study results offer practical guidelines about the unique aspects of donation to managers of crowdfunding platform and fundraisers.