Regret and Satisfaction as Determinants of Lapsed Donor Recommencement Decisions

Although a large amount of research has been undertaken into donor acquisition, relationship development, and the reasons why certain donors terminate their support for fundraising charities, few studies have examined the factors that encourage lapsed donors to resume giving to the organizations they have deserted. This empirical investigation sought to contribute to contemporary knowledge concerning this important matter via a survey of 310 lapsed donors (some of whom had resumed giving) to a hospice charity in the south east of England. The variables hypothesized to influence donor revival decisions comprised a person's satisfaction with the charity's work, past communications received from the organization, communications associated with the charity's revival efforts, the individual's donation history and reason for initial lapse, and the ex-donor's degree of involvement with charity giving. A person's feelings of regret were posited to represent a critical mediating variable between several of the abovementioned factors and a lapsed donor's decision to resume or not to resume giving. The results suggest that regret did indeed play a major role in lapsed donors' revival processes and that an individual's satisfaction with the quality of a charity's communications requesting the recommencement of the individual's support was a crucial determinant of restart decisions.