Social-cognitive factors of donating money to charity, with special attention to an international relief organization

Because international relief organizations (IROs) play an important role of helping poor people across national boundaries, planning for raising funds for them is an essential but yet uncharted area for research. A theoretical guide for the planning is the framework of social cognitive theory and associated theories which propose that beliefs about self-efficacy, outcome efficacy, moral obligation, need, and attribution are crucial determinants of donation or intention to donate. To examine the contribution of such a framework, the present study used a telephone survey to randomly select and interview 277 people in Hong Kong. Results support the causal model in that; (1) self-efficacy, outcome efficacy, trust in the IRO, moral obligation, need for donation, awareness of the IRO, and past donation showed significantly positive effects on intention, (2) self-efficacy appeared to stem from trust in the IRO and income, and (3) individualist explanation exerted significantly negative effects on intention to donate to the IRO and self-efficacy. © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.