Recognizing the high lapse rate among private financial donors to social welfare organizations, one significant issue has been how to retain consistent donors to offset the inherent cost of recruiting new ones. Despite the importance of funder-raising in order to conduct programs and services, social welfare organizations have paid little attention to the psychological well-being or personal growth of donors.
Likewise, previous studies concerned with monetary donations have focused on exploring factors which stimulate giving rather than examining some benefits which might be enjoyed by donors as a consequence of their gift. Previous studies do not incorporate these two aspects into research framework. By viewing donors for social welfare organization as both "givers" and "beneficiaries", this study aims to address the correlations between the continuity of donors'' contributions and enhanced sense of satisfaction as a consequence of participating in donation activities.
The predominant concern of this study centers on: (1) the direct effects of individuals'' emotional utility, demonstrable utility, trust toward donee organization, self acceptance on the continuation of their donation; (2) the direct effects of individuals'' emotional utility, demonstrable utility, trust toward donee organizations on individuals'' self-acceptance; (3) the direct effects of individuals'' emotional utility, demonstrable utility on their trust toward a donee organization; (4) the indirect effects of individuals'' self acceptance on two paths i.e. emotional utility?trust?self acceptance, and demonstrable utility?trust?self acceptance; (5) the indirect effects of individuals'' individuals'' trust toward donee organization on self acceptance on four paths i.e. emotional utility?trust?continuity of donation; demonstrable utility?trust?continuity of donation; emotional utility?trust?self-acceptance, and demonstrable utility?trust?self-acceptance; (6) the moderating effects of ''gender'', ''financial status'' and ''religious faith'' on the causal relationships in the prescribed structural equation model(SEM). According to ''gender'', ''financial status'' and the degree of ''religious faith'', mutli-group analysis between each of the two groups were conducted.
Research is based on a survey among 1116 donors who had made charitable, monetary contributions to social welfare organizations in Daegu and Kyungpook province. Data was collected from 29 organizations. In order to address the research questions, structural equation were employed. A variety of tests are conducted(metric invariance, critical ratio for difference, structural invariance, multi-group analysis, bias-corrected boot-strapping, latent mean analysis including Cohen''s effect test).
The noticeable findings are as follows:
First, the findings of this study support the significance of both direct effects and indirect effects of five latent variables(emotional utility, demonstrable utility, self-acceptance, trust toward donee organization, continuity of donation) except for two direct paths and two indirect paths. Either individuals'' self acceptance or individuals'' trust on donee organization does not effect on the continuation of their donation in every group. We failed to find indirect influences of either individuals'' emotional utility or demonstrable utility on the continuation of their donation via the self acceptance in every group. In addition, we could not verify a mediating effect of individuals'' trust toward donee organization between either individuals'' emotional utility or demonstrable utility and the continuation of their donation in the financially relatively poor group.
Second, among three moderating variables(gender, financial status, religious faith), only ''financial status'' showed statistically significant moderating effect on the two direct paths(i.e.''trust in donee organization?continuity of donation; ''demonstrable utility?self acceptance). In the relatively rich group, we verified the positive effect(.192)of individuals'' trust in donee organization on the continuity of their donation, whereas we could not verify a significant direct effect in the relatively poor group. Additionally, we found the direct effect(.280) of individuals'' demonstrable utility on their self acceptance in the poor group to be far stronger than that found(.115) in the relatively rich group.
Finally, we found significant difference of latent means of each latent variable. Males had greater demonstrable utility and trust in donee organization than female did. Individuals in a relatively rich group showed greater emotional utility, demonstrable utility, self acceptance, and continuity of donation than individuals in the relatively poor group did. Individuals with high levels of religious faith had greater emotional utility, trust toward donee organization, and continuity of donation than individuals with low level of religious faith did. A range of theoretical and practical implications were suggested based on the above findings.