An Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour in Predicting Individual Charitable Giving

The scenario in Malaysia, charitable organizations is challenged to raise significant donation to cover high demand for their services. For charities to survive in competition, they have to depend more on individual donors and less on the government for funding in order to survive. While the topic of charitable giving has been substantially studied, no known research has explored the applicability of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in the context of individual charitable giving intentions and behavior. In addressing the research gap, this paper details a preliminary study which examined the influence of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control and another two extended variable which is religious belief and trust on charitable giving intentions and behavior. Data were obtained via a survey on 347 individual donors in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The results of the PLS analysis indicated that attitude, perceived behavioural control, religious belief and trust significantly predicted individual intention to undertake charitable giving. Contrary to expectations, the data did not provide support for the influence of subjective norm toward individual decisions to undertake charitable giving. This study will make the upper management of the non-profit organizations to understand about the different indicators that can affect charitable giving and will help to find out the characteristic that have positive impact on donations as well as on individuals. Thus, this study will be useful for all non-profit organizations to understand and influence donors/individual to donate in their organizations.