Abstract
An extensive literature has examined the proposition that public perceptions of a charity's level of efficiency (evidenced, for instance, by the ratio of its administration and fundraising costs to total expenditures) impact heavily on its capacity to attract donations. Yet little is known about the factors that determine the accuracy of donor evaluations of charity performance or about the linkages between inaccurate ratings and the favourability of a person's attitudes towards charities. This empirical study employed two of Cronbach's measures of the accuracy of attribute ratings (differential accuracy and differential elevation) as a means for exploring possible relationships between the precision with which an individual evaluates various charity performance indices and his or her willingness to give. Two potential antecedents of ratings accuracy were assessed: the provision of relevant information on a charity's efficiency in areas collateral to the performances to be inferred and a person's knowledge of and familiarity with the charity sector. Additionally, the investigation queried the degrees to which the sample respondents believed that certain performance attributes covaried with others.
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Bennett, R., Savani, S. Predicting the accuracy of public perceptions of charity performance. J Target Meas Anal Mark 11, 326–342 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jt.5740088
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jt.5740088