Veríssimo Diogo, Campbell Hamish A, Tollington Simon, MacMillan Douglas C, Smith Robert J
Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom.
Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, Australia.
PLoS One. 2018 Jan 25;13(1):e0191888. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0191888. eCollection 2018.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play a key role in biodiversity conservation. The majority of these organisations rely on public donations to fund their activities, and therefore fundraising success is a determinant of conservation outcomes. In spite of this integral relationship, the key principals for fundraising success in conservation are still guided by expert opinion and anecdotal evidence, with very few quantitative studies in the literature. Here we assessed the behaviour of monetary donors across twenty-five different species-focused conservation campaigns organised by an NGO conservation and environmental society. The Australian Geographic Society (AGS) carried out fundraising campaigns over a five and half year period using an identical methodology in thirty-four of its country-wide network of outlet shops. AGS owns and operates these shops that sell toys and games related to science and nature. We tested how the following factors influenced monetary donations from members of the public:1) campaign duration, 2) appeal and familiarity of species, 3) species geographic distribution relative to the fundraising location, 4) level of income and education of potential donors, 5) age and gender profile of potential donors. Contrary to past research, we found most of these factors did not significantly influence the amount of donations made to each campaign by members of the public. Larger animals did elicit a significantly higher amount donated per transaction than smaller animals, as did shops located in poorer neighbourhoods. Our study findings contrast with past research that has focused largely on hypothetical donations data collected via surveys, and demonstrates the complexity and case-specific nature of relationships between donor characteristics and spending patterns. The study highlights the value of assessing real-world fundraising campaigns, and illustrates how collaboration between academia and NGOs could be used to better tailor fundraising campaigns to maximise donations from individual citizens.
非政府组织（NGOs）在生物多样性保护中发挥着关键作用。这些组织中的大多数依靠公众捐赠来资助其活动，因此筹款成功与否是保护成果的一个决定因素。尽管存在这种不可或缺的关系，但保护领域筹款成功的关键原则仍以专家意见和轶事证据为指导，文献中很少有定量研究。在此，我们评估了一个非政府保护与环境协会组织的25个不同的以物种为重点的保护活动中货币捐赠者的行为。澳大利亚地理学会（AGS）在五年半的时间里，在其全国范围内的34家网络商店中采用相同的方法开展筹款活动。AGS拥有并运营这些商店，出售与科学和自然相关的玩具和游戏。我们测试了以下因素如何影响公众的货币捐赠：1）活动持续时间，2）物种的吸引力和熟悉程度，3）相对于筹款地点的物种地理分布，4）潜在捐赠者的收入和教育水平，5）潜在捐赠者的年龄和性别分布。与过去的研究相反，我们发现这些因素中的大多数并没有显著影响公众对每个活动的捐赠金额。较大的动物每笔交易引发的捐赠金额明显高于较小的动物，位于较贫困社区的商店也是如此。我们的研究结果与过去主要关注通过调查收集的假设捐赠数据的研究形成对比，并证明了捐赠者特征与支出模式之间关系及具体情况各有不同的复杂性。该研究强调了评估实际筹款活动的价值，并说明了学术界与非政府组织之间的合作如何能够用于更好地定制筹款活动，以最大限度地提高个人公民的捐赠。
