Charity Inefficiency

What it measures

A three-item scale measuring the degree to which a consumer perceives a charitable organisation as wasteful and inefficient in its use of donated funds. Items tap beliefs about financial wastefulness, inefficient funding use, and scepticism about whether donations actually reach intended beneficiaries. The scale captures the cognitive distrust dimension of charity evaluation — concerns about operational overhead and fund allocation — rather than distrust of the organisation's mission or values.

Response format

7-point Likert

Scale items

• This organization is wasting money.
• This organization is not efficient in using its funding.
• I wonder how much of my donation will actually go to the needy people.

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

Usage notes & scoring

Alpha: α = .75 (Study 4, n = 129 undergraduates) and α = .80 (Study 6, n = 507 MTurk) — Yin, Li & Singh (2020). The .75 lower bound falls below threshold; the scale is included on the basis of the .80 estimate from Study 6. VALIDITY: Not discussed. Scale source not identified — appears original to the authors. The lower alpha in Study 4 may reflect the student sample or different charity stimuli used in that study.

Citation

Yin, Bingqing (Miranda), Yexin Jessica Li, and Surendra Singh (2020). Coins are cold and cards are caring: The effect of pregiving incentives on charity perceptions, relationship norms, and donation behavior. Journal of Marketing, 84(6), 57–73.

Keywords