The state-of-the-art and future research directions in face-to-face fundraising: A systematic literature review

• In Event: Unveiling Insights through Literature Reviews

Abstract

Face-to-face (F2F) fundraising is a technique built around F2F interaction between paid or volunteer recruiters (directly connected to nonprofit organizations (NPOs) or employed by external fundraising agencies) and potential donors. The technique has several advantages for NPOs such as the possibility to target new and often younger groups of potential donors (Sargeant & Hudson, 2008) and the focus on recurring donations (Jay, 2001), both vital in an ever more competitive nonprofit sector. The technique also has drawbacks such as the pressure, distrust, and obtrusion perceived by (potential) donors, which negatively influence people’s perceptions of NPOs (Waldner et al., 2020). F2F fundraising has nonetheless found its way into the fundraising strategy of many NPOs around the world. In Europe alone, an estimated 43% of the NPOs stated that they were using this technique in 2022 (European Fundraising Association & Salesforce, 2023). Despite the widespread use, little is known about the F2F fundraising technique and its effects and effectiveness. Hence this review of existing literature on F2F fundraising.
Our study serves two goals. First, we systematically review 50 years of literature on F2F fundraising in the nonprofit sector, focusing on door-to-door fundraising and street fundraising as these are most suitable to regularly recruit as many and as diverse people as possible. We start by providing a quantitative synthesis of 68 articles published in international peer-reviewed academic journals, then we construct a framework illustrating the F2F fundraising process based on recurring research themes in our review sample, after which we give a qualitative synthesis of the articles. Our framework is centered around F2F fundraising outcomes and incorporates actor- or context-related factors affecting these outcomes. Our qualitative review then covers these outcomes and actor- or context-related factors. Some articles mainly analyze the outcomes of F2F fundraising, such as number of new donors, number of committed donors, or average donation amounts. Other articles mainly focus on actor- or context-related factors affecting these outcomes, such as NPO’s cause, recruiters’ physical appearance, donors’ demographic characteristics, payment method, use of compliance techniques, or traffic density. Second, we uncover gaps in existing knowledge and provide recommendations for a future research agenda based on our quantitative and qualitative synthesis. Existing academic research has, for example, not given equal consideration to the different perspectives of the actors involved in F2F fundraising (more specifically the perspective of recruiters), the ethics of F2F fundraising, and the long-term effects of actor- or context-related factors on F2F fundraising outcomes.

References

References
European Fundraising Association & Salesforce. (2023). 2022 NONPROFIT PULSE. European
Fundraising Association & Salesforce. https://efa-net.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/EFA-Salesforce-Nonprofit-Pulse-2022.pdf
Jay, E. (2001). The rise-and fall?-of face-to-face fundraising in the United Kingdom. New
Directions for Philanthropic Fundraising, 2001(33), 83–94. https://doi.org/10.1002/pf.3306
Sargeant, A., & Hudson, J. (2008). Donor retention: an exploratory study of door-to-door
recruits. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 13(1), 89–101. https://doi.org/10.1002/nvsm.301
Waldner, C. J., Willems, J., Ehmann, J., & Gies, F. (2020). The impact of face‐to‐face street
fundraising on organizational reputation. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 25(4), e1672–n/a. https://doi.org/10.1002/nvsm.1672

Authors

• Tayyeb Hadi, KU Leuven

• Tine De Bock, KU Leuven

• Tine Faseur, KULeuven VAT BE 0419 052 173

• Siegfried Dewitte, KU Leuven