Open AccessThe impact of generalized and institutional trust on donating to activist, leisure, and interest organizations: individual and contextual effects
Author(s) -
Evers Anouk,
Gesthuizen Maurice
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
international journal of nonprofit and voluntary sector marketing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.398
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1479-103X
pISSN - 1465-4520
DOI - 10.1002/nvsm.434
Subject(s) - multilevel model , european social survey , function (biology) , public relations , social trust , social psychology , political science , business , psychology , social capital , politics , law , machine learning , evolutionary biology , computer science , biology
In this paper, we answer the question as to what extent donating to activist, interest, and leisure organizations is affected by both individual and national levels of generalized and institutional trust. We use the European Social Survey 2002 to estimate multilevel random intercept models, based on more than 33 000 individuals living in 19 European countries and the USA. Our results show very consistent positive impacts of both individual generalized trust and institutional trust on donating to all types of organizations. The effects are strongest for donating to activist organizations and absent only for the relation between institutional trust and donating to interest organizations. At the national level, generalized trust positively affects donations to activist and leisure organizations, but not to interest organizations. Institutional trust at the national level is negatively related to donations to all types of organizations. This latter finding suggests that when institutions are perceived to function well, individuals estimate that their philanthropic donations are less needed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.