Factors influencing the probability of early lapse of face to face recruited charity donors

Samples of lapsed and non-lapsed regular standing order donors to a large UK healthcare charity completed a questionnaire designed to establish possible reasons for lapse or continuation and, for the sample of lapsers, the main factors that contributed to whether a lapse was due to a person’s inability to pay. All the donors had been recruited face to face by employees of a professional external fundraising agency. A model was constructed hypothesising that lapse decisions, and the importance of financial considerations in such decisions, depended in part on an individual’s susceptibility to influence by an agency employee, the perceived importance of the charity’s cause, the person’s level of public commitment to the cause, level of income and recent changes in income, age, and general tendency to overspend.