MetaTOC stay on top of your field, easily

Willingness to Donate to Racially Marked Non‐Governmental Organizations: The Case of Environmental Justice

,

Sociological Forum

Published online on

Abstract

["Sociological Forum, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nNon‐governmental organizations (NGOs) rely on donor support to pursue their missions. As such, NGOs may forgo initiatives that do not appeal to constituents, such as racially coded activities. This dynamic is especially relevant for environmental NGOs (ENGOs), which have faced considerable pressure to integrate racial equity from environmental justice movements. Here, we use ENGOs as an exemplary case of the challenge facing NGOs attempting to address racial equity, using a survey experiment (n = 1220) to examine donor support for racially marked ENGOs (i.e., those with explicit mention of racially marginalized groups) and racially unmarked ENGOs (i.e., those with no mention of racial groups). We find that including racially marked initiatives does not affect overall donation levels or willingness to donate in the future. However, this null finding is driven by countervailing responses: Individuals with high levels of colorblind racial ideology donate less, while those with low levels donate more. These results suggest that, rather than losing material support, NGOs are more likely to experience a constituency shift. Our study contributes to the underexplored topic of environmental justice donations and posits that NGO hesitancy to integrate racial equity may stem from organizational cultures rather than a legitimate threat of losing donations.\n"]