oa Vrijgevigheid in beeld - Nationale acties voor het goede doel in Nederland

Picturing generosity: National campaigns for charitable causes in the Netherlands .

In this study we provide an overview of the history of national campaigns for charitable causes in the Netherlands. Firstly we describe the development of the 59 national campaigns held between 1951 and 2005. We distinguish two periods of national campaigns: the galas for charitable causes (1963-1983) and the era of the national campaigns by the Dutch Cooperative International Aid Organizations (1984-2005). We then formulate and test hypotheses concerning possible explanations for the success of national campaigns. Bivariate results show that campaigns organized for ‘innocent’ victims, campaigns held in a period with a lower ‘campaign frequency’, and campaigns held in years with stronger economic growth are more successful. In a multivariate model a significant association only emerged between economic growth and the success of a national campaign.