Considerations regarding donation and value co-creation in times of COVID-19 pandemic

This paper examines the phenomenon of strategic donation (including fundraising and intention to donate) through the lens of value co-creation before and after the outbreak of the COVID-19 in non-profit organizations (NPOs). The methodology was based on interviews and statistical analyses of online data. The qualitative results demonstrated that within NPOs, neither the marketing strategy nor the fundraising has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. NPOs employ a variety of strategies, including value co-creation activities (events), which is a key element in influencing engagement and donation. The quantitative findings showed that "dialogue" is the most frequent of the value co-creation elements (dialogue, access, risk sharing, and transparency-DART) in the media (posts) under consideration. In general, linear regression indicated that, after the beginning of the pandemic, these DART elements may predict online interaction and intention to donate. Shares and comments had a weak R2 before the pandemic outbreak and a strong R2 after it; that may be explained by the fact that people spent more time online after the outbreak.