Promoting organ donation through philanthropic partnerships

Abstract

Government agencies and health practitioners are partnering with businesses to promote organ donation to wider audiences. However, little is known about whether targeted promotion through partnerships will help or hurt an agency promoting organ donation in its goal to obtain support from the public. Four studies reveal that depending on the risk of dying associated with partner members, a partnership promoting posthumous organ donation targeting these members may heighten thoughts of donors' exploitation. Donor exploitation concern, in turn, makes the targeted promotion of organ donation through the partnership unacceptable to people. This perception diminishes people's support for the agency initiating such a partnership in terms of how they evaluate it, intend to visit its website, and donate money to support its cause. We further show that the negative effect of targeted promotion through partnerships is alleviated when people are primed to be less concerned about the exploitation of organ donors or when the organ donation agency's commitment to protecting donors' rights is made salient.