Charity affiliation as a determinant of product purchase decisions

A number of large UK charities have extended their product sales into areas not traditionally associated with non‐profit organisations. Examines the connection between a person’s assessment of the quality and value for money of conventional charity goods (T‐shirts or coffee mugs for example) and their evaluation of the likely merits of new and unfamiliar charity products (such as package holidays or household insurance). Emerges that the former variable exerted a strong and statistically significant impact on the latter, but that the form of the relationship was moderated by individual perceptions of the degree of similarity between the old and new products. “Similarity” was defined in terms of the skills and resources that consumers considered necessary in order to supply various items and the charity’s perceived capacity to employ these skills and abilities in ways which generate fresh products of the same calibre as existing goods.