An exploration of charity sport event donor perceptions of online peer-to-peer fundraising mechanisms

The employment of online peer-to-peer fundraising has become a critical aspect of the charity sport event experience. Charity sport event participants are encouraged, and often required, to fundraise as part of their involvement. Within this fundraising, participants increasingly use online peer-to-peer fundraising to solicit donations. The current research examines online peer-to-peer fundraising from the perspective of charity sport event donors. Guided by diffusion of innovation theory and sociological approaches to technology, semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals who had made an online donation in support of a charity sport event participant in the previous 12 months (N=24). Four themes developed from the interviews: technological detachment, technology eases pressure, saturated market, and cause integrity. These themes highlight concerns with the relative advantage inherent to online peer-to-peer fundraising, as well as the importance of addressing technological adoption as a social process between users and technologies. The findings provide implications for event managers and charity managers to empower fundraisers to engage further with prospective donors through both online and in-person communication.