Charitable Donation Effort and Sacrifice

What it measures

Five items measure how much effort, hard work, thought, and personal sacrifice an entity (typically a company, but also applicable to individuals) is perceived to have invested in a donation. The authors originally expected effort and sacrifice to form separate constructs, but factor analyses across several studies supported a single combined factor.

Response format

Response format not reported in available source material; likely 7-point Likert

Scale items

• _____ put a lot of effort into this donation.
• _____ worked hard on this donation.
• _____ put thought into this donation.
• How big was _____'s sacrifice when making this donation?
• [Item 5 not available — refer to original article]

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Alphas ranged from .85 to .92 across multiple studies. The scale was used primarily to assess a company's donation effort, but was also applied to an individual donor in one study. Item 4 ('How big was _____'s sacrifice...') uses a question format that may require a different response anchor set (e.g., very small to very large) relative to the statement items; the response format was not detailed in the available source content — verify with the original article. Item 5 is not available in the source material provided; researchers should consult the original article for the complete item set before use.

Citation

Gershon, R., & Cryder, C. (2018). Goods donations increase charitable credit for low-warmth donors. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(2), 451–469.

Keywords