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This study investigates how nonprofit organizations could develop their websites to elicit positive evaluations and increase fundraising. More specifically, it focuses on the use of celebrity endorsements in an online context. The interaction between perceived congruence of the celebrity with the nonprofit organization and the level of interactivity induced by the website is examined on website experience, which is an important predictor of the attitude toward—and donation intentions for—a (fictitious) nonprofit organization. Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design ( N = 122), the level of website interactivity and the (in)congruence between the celebrity and the organization are manipulated. The results show that an incongruent celebrity endorser incites a more favorable website experience than a congruent endorser on an interactive website. This, in turn, leads to a more positive attitude and a higher donation intention for the charity. In a non-interactive context, a congruent versus incongruent endorser has no differential impact on people’s responses.
Panić et al. (Thu,) studied this question.