Predicting the Lifetime Durations of Donors to Charities

ABSTRACT Charitable organisations increasingly attempt to estimate the “lifetime values” of their donors with the intention of segmenting supporters and focusing resources and activities on high lifetime value givers. This paper contributes to the literature on donor lifetime value by presenting the results of an empirical study of the factors that encouraged donors to a certain charity to continue their relationship with the organisation. It emerged that the length of a person's association with the charity was significantly associated with two psychometric traits (involvement with charity giving and “helper's high”), four “exchange” variables (value and frequency of donations, number of charities supported and means of donation), and the strength of a person's inner feelings of enjoyment about being thanked for making a gift. Clear linkages between lifetime duration and the likelihood of an individual naming a charity as a beneficiary of his or her will were identified.