JSTOR: Not Everyone Wants Their Donations Touted on Facebook

an item on the JSTOR DAILY by Karen Winterich [via ResearchBuzz: Firehose]



I recently made a donation on a friend’s GoFundMe page. I paused over the box to hide my name before clicking it. Then as I finished up, the website asked me if I wanted to share my donation on Facebook. I clicked “skip.”

I also have a team in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in honor of my mother. Every time I donate online, the website prompts me to announce my gift on social media. I’ll share our team’s fundraising page on Facebook but not my own donation. Most people who donate to my team don’t share their donations on social media either.

Although these requests to flaunt donations are becoming extremely common, not all donations are trumpeted on Facebook or Twitter or heralded in programs for concerts and school reunions. Some are completely anonymous.

I study how someone’s identity affects their charitable giving. The twinge of self-consciousness I feel when asked to publicize my donation on social media or have my name revealed made me wonder why some donors broadcast their good deeds while others remain silent.

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I’ve been thinking about this and realised that, for national causes I care about, I actually want people to know that I support X or Y but where it is a private go-fund-me donation then I do not want the whole world knowing.

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Valuing the social? The nature and controversies of measuring social return on investment (SROI)

an article by Malin Arvidson, Fergus Lyon, Stephen McKay and Domenico Moro (affiliation(s) not provided) published in Voluntary Sector Review Volume 4 Number 1 (March 2013)

Abstract

The concept of “social return on investment” (SROI) has come to play an important role in debates about how social enterprises and charities conceptualise, measure and communicate their achievements.

In this paper we analyse the nature and role of SROI as used in the United Kingdom for impact assessment of such organisations.

The paper offers insight into methodological and procedural aspects of the framework.

Key issues explored include the quantification of benefits, the valuing of volunteering and the ways in which judgement and discretion are exercised. There is a particular tension between the participatory element in the design of each SROI exercise and its use for the purpose of competition.

The paper concludes by proposing a research agenda that includes an examination of the context in which discretion and judgement are applied and the use and usefulness of SROI in the new policy and funding environment in which third sector organisations currently find themselves.

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