"Mo" Together or Alone? Investigating the Role of Fundraisers' Networks in Online Peer-to-Peer Fundraising. (October 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Priante, Anna; Ehrenhard, Michel L.; van den Broek, Tijs; Need, Ariana; Hiemstra, Djoerd
• Is Part Of: Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly. Volume 51:Number 5(2022)
• Page Start: 986
• Page End: 1009
• Publication Date: 2022-10
• Subjects: online peer-to-peer fundraising -- social networks -- social capital -- Twitter -- social network analysis -- regression analysis; Nonprofit organizations -- Periodicals; Voluntarism -- Periodicals; Charity organization -- Periodicals; 361.763
• DOI: 10.1177/08997640211057456
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0899-7640

Abstract

In online peer-to-peer fundraising, individual fundraisers, acting on behalf of nonprofit organizations, mobilize their social networks using social media to request donations. Whereas existing studies focus on networks of donors to explain success, we examine the role of the networks of fundraisers and their effect on fundraising outcomes. By drawing on social capital and network theories, we investigate how social capital derived from social media networks and fundraising groups explains individual fundraising success. Using the Movember health campaign on Twitter as an empirical context, we find that fundraising success is associated with a moderate level of centrality in social media networks and moderate group network size. In addition, we find that fundraisers interact only marginally on social media but prefer to connect with each other outside these platforms and engage in group fundraising. Our article contributes to research on fundraising and social networks and provides recommendations for practice.