Alice Labban, Corinne Novell, Steven Bauer Explore Impact of Mindsets on Donation Intention

Seaver College professors Alice Labban, Corinne Novell, and Steven Bauer recently collaborated on the article Examining the impact of mindsets on donation intentions to homelessness charities via parallel serial mediation, published in the International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing.

The paper explores the impact of a person personality mindset on their charitable giving behaviors, specifically to homelessness charities. The researchers found that a person with a more fixed mindset, or the belief that human characteristics such as intelligence, personality, etc. are fixed and trait-like, (as opposed to a growth mindset, the belief that human characteristics are changeable) is significantly associated with lower donation intentions to homelessness charities.

Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that homelessness is less controllable and thus believe their donations will be less effective in inducing change, resulting in less donation, the study states.

The research went further in its explanation, revealing that individuals with a more fixed mindset also attribute homelessness to internal, personal causes as opposed to external, situational causes. This leads them to blame individuals for their social condition and be less sympathetic to individuals facing homelessness, both of which were then associated with lower donation intentions.

This study asserts that the conclusions found may be useful for nonprofits as they consider donors differences and strive to reach more growth-oriented donors as opposed to donors with fixed mindsets.

To read the full paper, visit the International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing.