Is Yangde still a valuable asset? The impact of recognition on donors’ willingness to make further donations and share information with others

An increasing number of charitable organizations offer donors recognition for their contributions, with the aim of encouraging them to make further donations and share information with others. This helps to increase the retention rate of donors and expand the influence of charitable organizations. Based on the theories of object self-awareness, self-consistency, and impression management, this study investigated the effects of different sources and types of recognition on donor willingness to make further donations and share information, as well as the underlying mechanisms behind these effects. Through one field experiment and three laboratory experiments, it was found that when the recognition comes from the recipients themselves, warm-based recognition (vs. ability-based recognition) can induce donors into a state of object self-awareness. This, in turn, stimulates their self-consistency motivation, thereby encouraging them to make further donations.