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Motivations for participating in charity-affiliated sporting events Roger Bennett, London Metropolitan University, UK* Wendy Mousley, London Metropolitan University, UK Paul Kitchin, London Metropolitan University, UK Rehnuma Ali-Choudhury, London Metropolitan University, UK Abstract Organisers of charity-affiliated sporting occasions have to attract participants, and thus need to understand the reasons why people want to take part. This paper examines the motives that influence participation in mass sporting events with charity connections. Five hundred and seventy-nine members of the public who reported that they had previously taken part in one or more charity-related sporting events completed a questionnaire designed to establish their reasons for participation, the number of events they had attended, and their willingness to increase their financial contribution to an event based on its charity-credentials. The results identified ten motives that seemingly determined participation. Four of these dominated the sample members’ responses, namely motivations that arose from (i) personal involvement with the good cause(s) supported by an occasion, (ii) opportunities to lead a healthy lifestyle provided by the event, (iii) an individual’s involvement with the sport in question, and (iv) the desire to mix socially with other attendees. The research also found that a person’s propensity towards being seriousminded exerted a moderating effect on the impacts on decisions to participate of three of these motives. A regression analysis revealed that individuals were more inclined to be willing to pay a higher fee to enter an event of this nature if it was regarded as high in status, if the participant was heavily involved with the good cause(s) covered by the occasion, and if the person was intent on pursuing a healthy lifestyle. People who felt a ‘duty to participate’ and who wanted to experience ‘fun and enjoyment’ were more likely than others to participate frequently in charity-related sporting events. Keywords Nonprofit marketing, Donor behaviour, Fundraising, Charity-affiliated sporting events *Correspondence details and biographies for the authors are located at the end of the article, p. 178 JOURNAL OF CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR, 2007, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 155-178 ISSN1475-3928 print /ISSN1477-6421 online © Westburn Publishers Ltd.

doi: 10.1362/147539207X223375

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INTRODUCTION In 2006, Weight Loss Resources UK (a collection of firms concerned with the supply of dietary products and services) reported the occurrence of ‘literally hundreds’ of running and walking events open to the British general public in 2005 and 2006; ranging from 10k and 5k road races through to fun runs and sponsored walks (WLR 2006, p.1). Typically these events are organised by local government (e.g., the Luton Marathon, the Haslemere Boxing Day Run, the Whitley 10k Road Race and Fun Run); by sportswear manufacturers or other commercial organisations (e.g., the Addidas Half Marathons, the Playtex Moonwalk, Baxters Foods Loch Ness Marathon and Festival of Running, the Flora Light Challenge for Women); or by fundraising charities (e.g., the Marie Curie Cancer Care Great Forest Run, the Children in Need Ladies 5k Run, the Race for Life, the Prince’s Trust 10k and Fun Run). Usually, a portion of the entrance fee paid to a local government department or commercial organiser of an event is donated to one or more charities. Additionally, participants themselves might procure ‘sponsors’ who pledge to pay to the entrant a certain sum of money if a walk or run is fully or partially completed. Cycling and hiking events also figure prominently in the mass participation sports calendar. Examples include the Coast-to-Coast Mountain Bike Race, the Lancashire Cycleway, the Lyke Wake Walk Challenge, the High Peak Winter Challenge Walk, and the Ambleside 9 Lakes in 9 Hours Mountain Bike and Trek Challenge. From a charity’s perspective the fundraising potential of these events is substantial, consequent to their frequent occurrence and the large numbers of people involved. For example, Cancer Research UK’s ‘Race for Life’ celebrated its 13th anniversary in 2006 by putting on 230 races involving 140,000 women in May and June of that year (Professional Fundraising, 2006). Novices and non-athletes participate thus extending appreciably the scope (and hence the fundraising capacity) of an event to embrace anyone actively interested in keeping fit and/or in pursuing a healthy lifestyle. The size of the potential market is impressive. According to Key Note (2004), 7.5% of the UK adult population regularly or occasionally go jogging, 26.7% engage in walking or rambling, 26.4% regularly swim, 13.2% cycle, and 15% regularly or occasionally participate in aerobics or other keep fit activities (Key Note [2004] defined occasional participation as taking part in an activity at least ten times a year). Overall, two-thirds of all British adults each month undertake some kind of physical activity involving the above. Moreover public participation in sports is expanding, driven by the creation of more public sports facilities and “greater consumer expectations of a healthy, active, leisure lifestyle” (Key Note 2004, p.5). It is also relevant to note that the late 1990s and early millennium years witnessed a large rise in the number of people joining health and fitness clubs. Aggregate UK expenditure on sports participation grew by 22.8% between 2000 and 2004 (from an average of about £2 to around £3 per household per week), reaching £3.5 billion in 2004 (Key Note, 2005). In 2005 the British government announced its intention to increase public participation in sporting activities substantially during the subsequent decade, specifying a target growth rate of one per cent per year (Sport England, 2005). Clearly, British adults are participating in vigorous physical exercise to a greater extent than at any time in the last half-century, and the trend is almost certain to continue. This creates significant opportunities for charities, not least because of the fact that participation in physical activity varies widely with respect to socio-economic status, with the affluent and well-educated reporting the highest levels of participation and the socially disadvantaged (particularly those from ethnic minorities) reporting

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the lowest (Sport England 2005). Males take part in more sporting events than females, and do so across a broader range of activities (females tend to concentrate on swimming, aerobics and generally keeping fit – see Key Note [2004]). Well-off, well-educated males represent one of the UK’s most lucrative donor segments (see Kottasz 2004), so events that bring individuals of this nature into direct contact with charitable good causes are clearly of interest to the fundraising community. A further relevant consideration is the potential of events that lie within any one sporting area (e.g., running) for attracting ‘cross-over’ participants. Thus, for instance, people who regularly swim or cycle might be induced to enter a 5k mass participation road race. Milne et al. (1996) surveyed 1611 US sports participants to establish the extents of the participation linkages among the seven sports covered by their investigation. Substantial overlaps were discovered. For example, two thirds of the people who went running also went cycling; 75% of those who cycled also ran; 59% of the runners in the sample went swimming and 37% played soccer. Unfortunately, little is known about the motives that impel people to enter mass participation sporting events, other than that a variety of motives apply. For example, Scott and Solomon’s (2003) study of a 5k ‘Race for a Cure’ charity road race in New York City identified a continuum of types of participant, ranging from ‘event junkies’ who took part primarily for the competition through to ‘social butterflies’ who were there mainly for social interaction. ‘Event activists’ who were ‘deeply committed campaigners’ for the cause supported by the event were also in attendance (p.47). A sound knowledge of participants’ reasons for taking part is vital nevertheless because, for many individuals, joining an event is an optional leisure time activity chosen voluntarily from a diverse range of alternatives. Thus, people have to be attracted to the event, i.e., to be convinced that taking part will satisfy a personal need of some kind or other. An immediate and critically important issue that arises here is whether individuals are motivated to participate more by considerations related to the sporting activity that defines an event (e.g., running or cycling) than by factors associated with support for the charitable good cause(s) in question. Knowledge of this matter should help event organisers to identify and characterise the market segments that are available and to devise effective campaigns for reaching various sectors of the total market. Commercial organisers of mass participant sporting events require such information to enable them to use events to contribute to corporate or product brand-building activities. Fundraising charities and government (typically local government) bodies seeking to promote health and fitness within the population need this information to increase the exposure and visibility of events and hence to maximise participation and revenue. It could be the case that people are willing to pay a substantially higher entry fee to an event that conspicuously advertises its charity connections. Kyle et al. (2003) found that participants’ expectations of how much they would have to pay to enter a 10k road race were significantly greater when the event organiser provided a large amount of information on the cost of arranging the event and on the personal sacrifices of the event organisers. Possibly therefore the fact that part of the proceeds from an event is to be donated to charity should be given much prominence in promotional literature, even to the extent of downplaying the competitive athletic dimension of the occasion. A study completed by McCarville et al. (1993) found that, where public sports programmes in general were concerned, potential participants were highly receptive to the notion of helping others and were prepared voluntarily to contribute substantial portions of their personal resources in order to improve public welfare. On the other hand, overemphasising the charitable dimension of an event

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might create the impression among sports participation enthusiasts that the event is neither serious nor challenging, hence discouraging entry and thereby reducing total revenues.

POSSIBLE REASONS FOR PARTICIPATING IN MASS SPORTING EVENTS Prior research in the field has suggested that individuals participate in a sporting activity for one or more of a number of specific reasons (for reviews of relevant literature see, for example, Sloan 1985; Ryan et al. 1997; Lindner and Kerr 2001; McDonald et al. 2002; Recours et al. 2004; Sport England 2005). Motives for participation can relate to the sporting activity itself, or to the general desire to pursue a healthy lifestyle. In the present research context, a third form of motivation needs to be examined, i.e., the wish to take part in an event arising from a strong desire to support the charitable good cause with which the event is associated. Sport related motives According to the abovementioned (and other) literature, a common cause of sports participation is a person’s desire to experience personal stimulation, leading to a sense of physical well being (Haskell 1987) and of mental tranquillity (Hobson and Rejeski 1993; Tucker 1990; Folkins and Sime 1981). Benefits may include stress reduction, physical arousal and exhilaration, catharsis (i.e., the release of aggression giving rise to gratifying sensations - see Spreitzer and Snyder [1983]), and thrilling experiences [Harter 1981]). Another possible impetus to participation is the desire to identify psychologically with a sport (Brodkin and Weiss 1990), to master its techniques and hence to improve personal self-esteem (Lindner and Kerr 2001). A high level of involvement with a specific sport might cause an adherent to value highly his or her participation in an event that (in the context of the sport in question) possesses high status, e.g., runners may regard the London Marathon as a high status occasion. An event might be prestigious consequent to its history, objectives and preexisting public image (Gwinner and Swanson 2003), its ability to attract ‘big names’ in the relevant sport, because it is well advertised, or through extensive TV coverage (Hansen and Gauthier 1994). A person might experience feelings of pride simply through participating in a high status event (cf. Sutton et al. 1997), as the prestige of the occasion is transferred psychologically to a person’s self-esteem and self-identity (Gwinner and Swanson 2003). Speed and Thompson (2000) found that the status of an event was associated with individual intentions to participate and with favourable attitudes towards organisations connected with the event. Further motives for participating in sporting events identified by relevant literature in the field involve social interaction, ‘exhibitionism’, competitive spirit, and wanting to experience fun and entertainment. Social interaction, i.e., the desire to enjoy camaraderie and to mix socially with others who enjoy the same activity, has been found to represent a significant factor in the participation decision (see Funk, Mahony and Ridinger 2002). MORI Research (2004) observed how participating in sporting events was a major vehicle through which people interacted with their communities. Exhibitionism in the present context concerns the desire to ‘look good’ in front of others, especially friends and acquaintances (see Recours et al. 2004).

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Lindner and Kerr (2001) in particular found that social pressures could encourage a person to take part in a mass sporting activity. Moreover, the authors continued, certain individuals felt the need to appear to be competent at a sport. Competitive spirit (Harter 1981) and the desire to achieve (Wong and Bridges 1995; Weiss and Chaumeton 1992 and Nicholls 1984) are known to drive many people to participate. Achievement in a chosen sport can lead to feelings of self-fulfilment and a sense of deep personal satisfaction at having risen to the challenge of the demands imposed by a sporting activity (cf. Rudnicki and Wankel 1988; Johnsgard 1983). Finally, the desire to experience fun and entertainment (Scanlan and Lewthwaite 1986; Scanlan and Simons 1992), the pleasure of taking part and the aesthetic attraction of the sport (Wills and Campbell 1992) might also induce participation. Sport England’s (2005) review of research in the area revealed that, in Britain, young women were more likely to participate in sport if the activity emphasised fun and enjoyment and provided the opportunity for social interaction with friends. Fitness related motives Irrespective of the particular sport covered by an event, it is known that certain people are drawn towards keeping fit and, in general, towards ‘healthy living’ (see Devine and Lepisto 2005). These individuals are more likely than others to engage in physical activity (Brodkin and Weiss 1990; Granzin et al. 1998; Paffenbarger and Lee 1996), and as such patently represent an attractive target market for mass sporting events (see Sport England, 2005). This implies that advertisements for events that are placed in media concerned with health-related products and services are more likely than others to achieve a sound response (Cancer Research UK’s ‘Race for Life’ explicitly emphasises ‘keeping fit and maintaining a healthy lifestyle’ in its promotional literature). Granzin’s et al. (1998) review of the academic literature concerning the variables associated with health-related behaviour identified three major factors that influenced the desire to pursue a healthy lifestyle: age, income level, and educational background. In the USA females have been found to be more likely than males to exercise, diet, and generally to attempt to maintain a healthy lifestyle (for details see Granzin et al. 1998; Devine and Lepisto 2005). Individuals who wish to pursue healthy lifestyles have been found to continue to participate in a sporting activity for significantly longer periods than others (see Ryan et al. 1997). Moreover there exists a substantial body of research literature (see Ryan et al. [1997] for details) which asserts that the health and fitness conscious are attracted to participate in general exercise activities (running, cycling, etc.) rather than in specific sports such as tennis or football. Ryan et al.’s (1997) own investigation found that ‘body related’ (health and fitness) motives were more influential among people who opted to participate in physically vigorous sports than among individuals who chose more sedate sporting activities (p. 335). Cause related motives Certain individuals might be influenced to participate in an event more by their levels of personal psychological involvement with the act of supporting the charity or charities affiliated with the event than by any other consideration (cf. Bennett and Gabriel 1999). The attraction of such people would require that an event be promoted in ways that strongly and directly connect it with the relevant charitable organisations. Zaichkowsky (1985) defined involvement as the perceived relevance of an entity based on a person’s needs, values and interests. Bennett and Gabriel (1999)

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found that supporters of a charity may come to feel deeply involved with its activities and existence, i.e., to begin regarding the act of supporting the charity as personally important, vitally necessary and inherently interesting. In the sport spectatorship context, attendees of the Women’s World Cup in 1999 were found to support the matches not only for spectatorship reasons but also to champion women’s sporting opportunities, which could be equated to a cause (Funk et al. 2001). Emotions of this type may result from innate altruism (Bierhoff et al. 1991), or from quintessentially egoistic desires to feel better as a result of supporting a good cause. Regardless of the specific source of a person’s sense of psychological involvement with helping a charity, it is likely that strong feelings of involvement will encourage an individual to participate in an event associated with the charity or charities concerned. This can lead to a sense of duty to take part and to a strong desire to raise a large amount of money for the good cause(s) supported by the event. ‘Helper’s high’ is a term sometimes used to describe the surge of self-gratifying positive emotion and/or the feelings of enhanced self-esteem that some people experience in consequence of having supported a charity (Williamson and Clark 1989). Indeed, Strahilevitz and Myers (1998) went so far as to allege that, as often as not, altruistic behaviour was little more than the ‘purchase of moral satisfaction’ undertaken for the egoistic reason of wanting to feel better (p. 435). To the extent that this is true it clearly creates opportunities for the marketing of charity-affiliated mass participation sporting events, as they provide entrants with possibilities for inwardly asserting that they are altruistic and possess high ideals and moral values. Moreover, participation carries the capacity to convey a (positive) symbolic statement about the individual, which fits in with his or her self-identity (cf. Strahilevitz and Myers 1998; see also Bennett and Gabriel 1999). Role of seriousmindedness Lindner and Kerr (2001) argued that the motivation to participate in a sport was both complex and multifaceted. Different motives could determine participation decisions at various times and in disparate circumstances. Nevertheless, Lindner and Kerr (2001) continued, an internal tendency towards ‘seriousmindedness’ pushed the individual into participation in consequence of ‘serious’ rather than ‘playful’ motives (p.760). Seriousmindedness, according to Murgatroyd et al. (1978), is the degree to which a person is ‘orientated toward goals seen as important to him or herself, physically or psychologically, rather than goals seen as trivial, arbitrary or inessential’ (p. 520). Cogan and Brown (1999) reported a substantial amount of evidence supporting the proposition that people selected sports activities that corresponded with their dominant psychological characteristics (including seriousmindedness). Thus, a serious person might be expected to be attracted to take part in an event for ‘serious’ reasons (e.g., to maintain personal health and fitness) rather than for fun and enjoyment. A study completed by Ryan et al. (1997) concluded that the health and fitness motive to engage in sporting activities was considerably stronger among people who derived relatively less enjoyment from the activity itself than among individuals who obtained great hedonic pleasure from participation. On the other hand, seriousminded people might use sport and physical activity to reverse the mood states induced by their very seriousmindedness. Thus, for example, an individual with this predisposition may enter a jogging or cycling event fundamentally for fun and with the deliberate intention of inducing a superficial pleasurable emotional state (Kerr 1997). In the context of the current research, the desire to help a charity or charities may reasonably be assumed to represent a serious reason for participation.

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A PROVISIONAL MODEL A model tentatively suggested by the abovementioned literature is presented in Figure 1, which posits that 12 motives have the potential to determine a decision to participate in a charity-affiliated sporting event and (following Lindner and Kerr [2001]) that some of these motives are moderated by the degree of a person’s seriousmindedness. Thus, for instance, it is assumed that the strength of the relationship between a person’s desire to succeed and to improve his or her performance will be greater the more seriousmindedness the individual. Likewise, positive moderating influences exerted by seriousmindedness are posited to apply to the effects of the desires to help a charity and to pursue a healthy lifestyle, and to feelings of a duty to participate. Conversely it is hypothesised that the impact on the participation decision of the desire to experience fun and enjoyment is moderated downwards by seriousmindedness. Involvement with the particular sport covered by an event (running, cycling etc.) should, it is suggested, influence two of the proposed motives to participate, i.e., the desire to take part in order to succeed and improve one’s performance, and wanting to participate because the event is regarded as possessing high status in the relevant sporting field. Concomitantly, heavy personal involvement with the good causes(s) associated with an event arguably results in a strong desire to help these good cause(s) and in the person feeling that he or she has a duty to participate. The latter variable should also be determined in part by the desire to help the good cause.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHOD The study sought to establish which of the 12 motives shown in Figure 1 dominated the decision to take part in a charity-affiliated mass sporting event. Specifically it attempted to discover the relative importance of the role of each of the following: (i) motives connected in some way or other with ‘altruistic’ considerations (desire to help the charity, feelings of a duty to participate, involvement with a good cause, helper’s high), (ii) motives concerned with the relevant sport and/or with sporting achievement (desires to improve performance, to experience physical or mental stimulation and to follow a healthy lifestyle; involvement with the sport, and the status of the event), and (iii) motives with a social dimension (exhibitionism, the desire to mix socially and to experience fun and enjoyment). Additionally, the investigation queried how much extra (if anything) people were on average willing to pay in terms of the entrance fee to an event simply because it was associated with charitable giving, and whether altruistically motivated individuals were prepared to pay more than others. The motivational determinants of how frequently a person took part in events of this nature were also examined. These matters were addressed via a questionnaire that was administered to a sample of 579 people who reported having taken part in at least one charity-affiliated sporting event. The responses were factor analysed (through SPSS 14) and then subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis using the AMOS 5 package. A stepwise regression procedure was employed to ascertain the motives that significantly helped to explain (i) the price premium that people were willing to pay to participate in a charity-affiliated event and (ii) an individual’s propensity to take part in a large number of these events.

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Desire to succeed/improve performance (moderated upwards by seriousmindedness)

Involvement with the sport

Exhibitionism

Desire to experience physical and mental stimulation

Desire to pursue a healthy lifestyle (moderated upwards by seriousmindedness)

Desire to experience helpers’ high

DECISION TO PARTICIPATE

Desire to experience fun and enjoyment (moderated downwards by seriousmindedness)

Feels a duty to participate (moderated upwards by seriousmindedness)

Desire to help the charity

Involvement with the good cause

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Attracted by the status of the event

Desire to mix socially

FIGURE 1 A suggested model

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The questionnaire A draft questionnaire was developed with sets of items (five-point agree/disagree scales) related to each of the motives shown in Figure 1, plus a group of items concerning the extent to which a person was seriousminded. Some of the questionnaire items were taken directly from pre-existing instruments; others had to be reworded to make them relevant to the specific context of the study (notably items to do with feeling a duty to participate and with the ‘desire to help the charity’). Table 1 lists the literature sources used to construct the various sections of the questionnaire. Where items were adapted rather than taken directly, the adaptation procedure applied followed that recommended by Engelland et al. (2001). Thus, three independent academics within the authors’ home university were asked to examine the proposed amended items and ensure that (i) they fell well within the scope of the domain of the relevant construct, (ii) they achieved the appropriate level of abstraction, (iii) they were worded in a way that was compatible with the target respondents’ educational level and vocabulary, and (iv) the anticipated outcomes of the adaptations matched those of the original scales. Each of the items concerning a motive to participate was preceded by the words ‘I decided to participate in the event because’. The questionnaire also contained a section that queried general matters such as TABLE 1 Questionnaire development Construct Desire to mix socially

No. of items 5

Desire to experience fun and enjoyment

5

Desire to pursue a healthy lifestyle

5

Desire to experience helper’s high Feels a duty to participate

4 5

Desire to experience physical and mental stimulation

5

Exhibitionism

5

Desire to succeed/improve performance Involvement with the sport

5 5

Attracted by the status of the event Involvement with a good cause

3 5

Desire to help the charity

4

Seriousmindedness

5

Sources Funk et al. (2004) McDonald et al. (2002) Funk et al. (2004) Lindner and Kerr (2001) Ryan et al. (1997) McDonald et al. (2002) Lindner and Kerr (2001) Bennett and Gabriel (1999) Gladden et al. (2005) Kasser and Ryan (1996) Recours et al. (2004) Swanson et al. (2003) Ryan et al. (1997) Recours et al. (2004) Kasser and Ryan (1996) McDonald et al. (2002) Frederick and Ryan (1996) Funk et al. (2004) Gwinner and Swanson (2003) Stewart et al. (2003) Gwinner and Swanson (2003) Bennett and Gabriel (1999) Lumpkin and Darden (1982) Gladden et al. (2005) Funk et al. (2004) Lindner and Kerr (2001) Murgatroyd et al. (1978)

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the respondent’s age, gender, financial status, educational level, the number of events the individual had taken part in, and the name of the last event in which the person had participated. Then the questionnaire asked the following question: Assuming the basic entry fee to an event was £25, how much more would you be prepared to pay for the entrance fee to an event that donated part of its total receipts to charitable good causes? Nothing / £1 - £3 / £4 - £6 / £7 - £9 / £10 or more

Pretesting of the questionnaire occurred through (i) an internal mail shot to 750 administrative and academic staff within the authors’ home university, plus (ii) administration of the questionnaire face-to-face to 40 members of the public who, when approached of random in street locations near to the authors’ institution in London, confirmed that they had taken part in an event of this type and agreed to be interviewed. The internal mail shot generated 49 replies. Analysis of this and the other set of responses did not suggest any misunderstandings of the wordings of questions or any evidence of excessively overlapping items. Hence the questionnaire was distributed in its original form more widely via additional street interviews (N=120) and through contacts with participants at charity-affiliated sporting events (N=370). As regards the latter, each of the researchers contributing to the study visited four different events taking place in the Greater London area between February and July 2006 (over 100 such events were identified during this period) and, at random, asked participants if they would be kind enough to take a copy of the questionnaire home with them, complete it, and then return the document by post in a reply paid envelope. Each researcher continued to approach people in this manner until a target of 50 participants had agreed to take the questionnaire (though in some instances only 20 to 30 positive responses were evoked). This generated a new sampling frame of 612 individuals, of which 370 (60.5%) actually replied. The responses of these 370 people were compared with those of the other groups, no meaningfully significant differences in response patterns emerging. Hence, all the replies were pooled to form a 579-strong sample.

RESULTS Descriptive results The people in the sample had a median age of 31.4 years. Forty-three per cent were male and 57% female. (The female majority in the sample is attributable to the fact that a number of the events sampled were women-only runs concerned with breast cancer and other female medical issues.) Seventeen per cent of the respondents described themselves as financially better off than most other people, 65% as ‘about the same’, ten per cent as slightly worse off, and eight per cent as worse off. Ten per cent claimed they were ‘much better educated’, 40% ‘better educated’, 35% ‘about the same’, and 15% ‘less well-educated’ than most other people. Fifty-four per cent of the respondents had participated in between two and four events of this nature. Twenty six per cent had taken part in just one, 13% in five to eight, and seven per cent in more than nine. Respondents had recently been involved in a wide range of charity-affiliated sporting events, concerned mainly with running (52%), cycling (20%), walking (14%) and swimming and other activities (14%). The respondents

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reported that, on average, they were prepared to pay £4 to £6 on top of a £25 entry fee in consequence of an event having a charity connection. Nineteen per cent would pay nothing extra, six per cent between £1 and £3, eight per cent £7 to £9, and 37% more than £10. Factor analysis Items relating to the 12 hypothesised motives were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis using SPSS 14. A ten-factor solution emerged, explaining 78% of the total variation in the data. Items within the constructs ‘Involvement with the good cause’ and ‘Desire to help the charity’ loaded significantly onto the same factor, indicating that they in fact belonged to a single underlying construct and not to two distinct constructs as had been presupposed. Hereafter this single construct is referred to as ‘Involvement with the charity’. Otherwise items loaded significantly onto all the expected constructs except for the two items shown in Table 3 as loading on Factor 1 (f) and Factor 6 (a). (On the basis of prior literature in the field these items had originally been assumed to belong to the construct ‘Desire to experience helper’s high’.) None of the items relating to the construct ‘Desire to succeed/improve performance’ (see Figure 1) loaded significantly onto any of the ten factors. Hence all the items relating to this construct were removed (see Table 2 [a to d] for details). It emerged moreover that four items correlated very highly with others within the same construct, to the extent that they could not be regarded as separate entities. Thus, these items (see Table 2 [e to h]) were also discarded. Varimax (orthogonal) and Oblimin (oblique) rotations of the ten-factor solution to the initial (principal components) factor analysis did not alter the pattern of the results. Also the Oblimin solution showed that no pair of factors was substantially correlated (R