Abstract
Social media charity campaigns rose to prominence in 2014 and helped to raise millions in funding for the charities involved. This research aimed to investigate the motivations for social media users to participate in the social media charity campaigns. Qualitative, semi structured interviews were conducted to gauge the motivations for taking part in charity campaigns. The themes that emerged showed that peer pressure and the involvement of others played a part in participation.
While previous research has been done on charity websites and information diffusion, in-depth research into the motivations to take part in these campaigns has not been performed. This research will fill a gap in the current knowledge about social media charity campaigns. This research is important as charities have had funding cuts and increase in demand for their services and social media is easy and cheap tool to use.
