Motivations to Support Charity-linked Events After Exposure to Facebook Appeals: Emotional Cause Identification and Distinct Self-determined Regulations

Nonprofit organizations are increasingly dependent on the involvement of Millennial constituencies. Three studies investigated their motivations to support charity-linked events: emotional identification with a cause, self-determination theory (SDT) regulations, and context-related Facebook promotions. This article addresses the recent call to expand SDT research from a simple analysis of autonomous versus controlled motivation, to studying the effects of all the regulations in the SDT continuum, in particular, the inclusion of the tripartite dimensions of intrinsic motivation and integrated motivation. Results demonstrated that the greater the emotional identification with the cause, the stronger was the tendency to support the charity-linked event. Also, the results in these social media contexts revealed that specific intrinsic dimensions (e.g., experience stimulation) are motivators of online and offline support, as is the personal value nature of integrated regulation. Whereas only autonomous motivational regulations predicted support for the two events organized specifically a for charitable causes, both autonomous and controlled regulations predicted support of a for-profit event organized with a charitable cause as an adjunct. These findings can assist practitioners in designing more effective social media communications in support of charity-linked events.