587715

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NVSXXX10.1177/0899764015587715Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector QuarterlyPanic et al.

Article
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
1­–18
Fundraising in an Interactive © The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/0899764015587715
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Katarina Panic1, Liselot Hudders1, and

Veroline Cauberghe1

Abstract
This study investigates how nonprofit organizations could develop their websites to
elicit positive evaluations and increase fundraising. More specifically, it focuses on
the use of celebrity endorsements in an online context. The interaction between
perceived congruence of the celebrity with the nonprofit organization and the level
of interactivity induced by the website is examined on website experience, which
is an important predictor of the attitude toward—and donation intentions for—a
(fictitious) nonprofit organization. Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design
(N = 122), the level of website interactivity and the (in)congruence between the
celebrity and the organization are manipulated. The results show that an incongruent
celebrity endorser incites a more favorable website experience than a congruent
endorser on an interactive website. This, in turn, leads to a more positive attitude and
a higher donation intention for the charity. In a non-interactive context, a congruent
versus incongruent endorser has no differential impact on people’s responses.

Keywords
celebrity endorsement, website interactivity, congruence, website experience,
nonprofit marketing

Introduction
Due to the increasing number of nonprofit charitable organizations, the competition
within the charity fundraising market has become fierce (Bennett & Savani, 2011). In
addition, in recent years, charitable organizations have had to rely more on individual
donors and less on the government for funding. As a result, nonprofit marketers are

1Ghent University, Belgium

Corresponding Author:
Liselot Hudders, Department of Communication Sciences, Ghent University, Korte Meer 7-9-11, Gent
9000, Belgium.
Email: liselot.hudders@ugent.be
2 Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 

constantly searching for new ways to get the attention their organizations need to
increase donor involvement and support. Gaining insights into the factors that affect
individuals’ affective and behavioral responses toward charitable organizations is thus
an important challenge (Hsu, Liang, & Tien, 2005).
An effective differentiation strategy, which is frequently adopted in social marketing,
and which has the potential to evoke affective reactions, can be achieved through the use
of celebrity endorsement (Wheeler, 2009). Past research shows that the use of celebrity
endorsers in social marketing can enhance its effectiveness, linking celebrity endorse-
ment to several positive outcomes such as increased attention to and involvement with
the cause, improved attitude toward the message, and an increased willingness to sup-
port the charitable organization (Wheeler, 2009). However, the strategic choice of which
celebrity to use to represent a given organization has become a very important and thus
frequently studied topic, in commercial as well as non-commercial marketing research
(Amos, Holmes, & Strutton, 2008; Erdogan, 1999; Fleck, Korchia, & Le Roy, 2012;
Ohanian, 1991; Pringle & Binet, 2005; Seno & Lukas, 2007). The authors mentioned
above have highlighted several explanatory factors, with congruence, or the perceived
“fit” between the celebrity endorser and the organization, being one of the most impor-
tant determinants. Fleck et al. (2012) have even suggested that celebrity congruence is at
least as important as the attitude toward the celebrity in terms of advertising effects. The
match-up hypothesis (Kamins, 1990), the meaning-transfer model (McCracken, 1986),
and the balance model (Heider, 1946) argue that optimal advertising effectiveness is
reached under conditions of congruence between the celebrity and the brand (here, non-
profit organization), meaning that the relevant characteristics of the endorser are consis-
tent with the relevant attributes of the brand or organization (Misra & Beatty, 1990).
However, recent research suggests that incongruence could also be a lucrative way
of capturing people’s attention and generating favorable responses (Fleck & Maille,
2010; Fleck & Quester, 2007; Lee & Schumann, 2004; Jagre, Watson, & Watson,
2001). Incongruence is perceived as more “interesting” and “noteworthy,” and there-
fore, it has the potential to increase persuasion as it makes the ad stand out in the crowd
(Meyers-Levy & Tybout, 1989; Yoon, 2012). A prerequisite, however, is that people
consider, process, and resolve this incongruity. When they do so, feelings of relief are
generated (Ingenhoff & Koelling, 2009), which may transfer to people’s evaluations of
the organization and improve fundraising performance. Although persuasive strategies
evoking schema incongruence have already been used in advertising, it remains
unclear which facets may facilitate individuals’ processing of incongruent information
(Fleck & Maille, 2010).
In light of the dominance of online communication and social media, the present
study looks into interactivity as a way to enhance the processing of incongruence. To
date, most nonprofit studies are based on traditional media such as television and print.
Considering that the new media environment currently includes more than 1.5 billion
Internet users, the importance of online websites as a communication tool cannot be
denied. Several characteristics of websites, such as content richness, design flexibility,
interactivity, and their relatively low cost, make websites attractive public relations
media (Vorvoreanu, 2008).
Panic et al. 3

According to van Noort, Voorveld, and van Reijmersdal (2012), websites are the
main online medium with which to inform and persuade the audience. As a result, a
great deal of profit and nonprofit organizations found their way onto the Internet in
the last two decades. For nonprofit organizations, a corporate website not only offers
a new way to reach the target audience, but its interactive nature also enables chari-
ties to actually interact with consumers and actively engage them with the content
and even motivate them to donate online (Cugelman, Thelwall, & Dawes, 2011). In
addition, past research shows that interactivity leads to increased cognitive elabora-
tion and information processing (Coyle & Thorson, 2001; van Noort et al., 2012),
which may enhance the processing and “resolving” of incongruent information. This
can evoke positive feelings that may transfer to users’ perceived website experience
(determined by factors such as website attractiveness and quality, Sundar &
Kalyanaraman, 2004). Based on recent studies on web experience and e-commerce,
we will examine the mediating role of this web experience on people’s attitude
toward the charitable organization and their donation intention. We focus on these
two specific responses as they are considered significant predictors of actual donat-
ing behavior, according to the revised theory of planned behavior (Smith &
McSweeney, 2007).
As insights into the effectiveness of communication strategies for nonprofit organi-
zations in the interactive online environment are scarce, the current study investigates
how the use of interactivity and (in)congruent celebrity endorsers can be deployed to
achieve a positive website experience to positively affect donors’ responses. These
insights can have important implications for fundraisers who are searching for effec-
tive ways to improve their persuasive communication strategies online.

The Impact of Congruent Versus Incongruent Stimuli

Congruence has been described as the fit, link, similarity, match, or connection
between two objects (Fleck & Quester, 2007). Heckler and Childers (1992) expanded
this unidimensional conceptualization of congruence into a bidimensional construct
defined by the dimensions relevancy and expectancy of the association. These two
dimensions, however, are independent of each other, as a celebrity can be very rel-
evant for a brand or an organization, but not expected (Fleck et al., 2012). In the area
of celebrity endorsement, a spokesperson can be considered relevant if there is a
clear meaning as to why he or she endorses the brand or (nonprofit) organization,
referring to his or her expertise or credibility in the domain of the brand/(nonprofit)
organization. Fleck et al. (2012) illustrate this by the example of a Formula 1 driver
who endorses a car brand. A celebrity endorser is expected if he or she corresponds
to a pattern evoked by the message of the organization. The authors cite the example
of the former Soviet statesman Michail Gorbatsjov, who featured in the 2007 Vuitton
luxury luggage campaign. Although Gorbatsjov is a relevant endorser because he
travels a lot and is likely to own top-of-the-range brands of luggage, it is highly
unexpected, as he, or other statesmen, usually do not appear in advertisements (Fleck
et al., 2012). Congruence is thus conceptualized as a relevant and expected
4 Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 

connection (Fleck & Quester, 2007), whereas incongruence is defined by Lane

(2000) as a relevant but surprising or unexpected association.
A review of studies examining (in)congruence in the advertising and consumer
behavior literature reveals mixed results. One stream of research argues that congruent
messages generate more favorable responses than incongruent ones do (see, for exam-
ple, Kamins, 1990; Kamins & Gupta, 1994; Sengupta, Goodstein, & Boninger, 1997).
This line of reasoning can also be found in fundraising literature, where it is argued
that the communication used to address and attract donors should match or “fit” the
identity of the nonprofit organization (Chang & Lee, 2009). When it comes to the use
of celebrity endorsers, theories such as the match-up hypothesis suggest that optimal
effects can be achieved by creating a match between the endorser and the charitable
organization (e.g., actor and Parkinson’s patient Michael J. Fox endorsing organiza-
tions conducting stem cell research; Wheeler, 2009). According to this theory, the
effectiveness of the fundraising campaign depends on the strength and the logic of this
match. When the fit is good, the celebrity endorser will foster a connection between
the endorser and the endorsed organization in the mind of the consumer and a transfer
of meaning will occur. Accordingly, advertising effectiveness will be enhanced
(Biswas, Hussain, & O’Donnell, 2009).
However, recent studies show that incongruence can sometimes generate more
favorable responses than congruence can, thus calling the match-up hypothesis into
question. Several studies argue that incongruent information may be perceived as
more distinctive and interesting than congruent information, triggering curiosity (Jagre
et al., 2001; Mandler, 1982; Meyers-Levy, Louie, & Curren, 1994; Meyers-Levy &
Tybout, 1989; Sheinin & Schmitt, 1994). In the current cluttered, even saturated adver-
tising environment in which individuals are becoming numb to standard marketing
techniques, using less obvious, incongruent information may be an effective way to
attract attention. Or, as argued by Fleck and Quester (2007), “to stand out in the large
amount of communication, is something only a degree of unexpectedness or surprise
can achieve” (p. 993).
In addition, the unexpected element of incongruence has the potential to create an
inner tension, which leads to a more elaborate and detailed processing of this infor-
mation to reduce this tension (Heider, 1958; Miller, Galanter, & Pribaum, 1960). It
has been suggested that tension aroused by incongruence has the potential to trigger
a human need or desire to relieve the tension through some form of resolution (Baker
& Petty, 1994; Goodstein, 1993; Heider, 1958; Lee & Schumann, 2004; Meyers-
Levy & Tybout, 1989). Fleck and Maille (2010) found that incongruence may lead
to a more positive evaluation of the stimuli, but only when individuals are able to
process and resolve the evoked tension successfully. Once this is achieved, positive
feelings of satisfaction, relief, efficiency, and control are evoked. However, to date,
it remains unclear as to which factors may incite people’s processing of incongruent
stimuli (Fleck & Maille, 2010). Previous studies suggest that both individual char-
acteristics (e.g., motivation, tolerance for ambiguity) and contextual factors (e.g.,
time to process information, situational involvement) may affect the processing of
incongruent information. In light of the important role of interactive websites as a
Panic et al. 5

communication tool, the current article tests the impact of website interactivity on
the processing of incongruent celebrity information.

The Moderating Role of Interactivity

Interactivity is often perceived as the key characteristic of digital media (Chung &
Zhao, 2006). Although not applied to the social marketing context, past research indi-
cates that the benefits offered by interactivity may provide new ways to bring charitable
organizations closer to citizens and increase issue involvement (Kruikemeier, Van
Noort, Vliegenthart, & De Vreese, 2013). In terms of fundraising, interactivity offers
the potential to strengthen the relationships with the existing donors and to attract new
ones. In addition, the interactive aspect of websites offers the ability to execute finan-
cial transactions immediately online (Fill, 2000; Ingenhoff & Koelling, 2009).
The term interactivity stands for a more powerful sense of user engagement with
media content, individualized media use, and greater user choice (Lister et al., 2009).
Instead of passive targets, users become active and able to control the communication
process. Although numerous definitions of interactivity can be found (for an overview,
see Fortin & Dholakia, 2005 or Liu & Shrum, 2002), they all come down to three main
characteristics. The first dimension is two-way communication and refers to the possi-
bility of reciprocal communication between the organization and the website user. The
second dimension is active control and refers to the user’s ability to control which
information he or she wants to process and in what sequence. Finally, the third dimen-
sion refers to the synchronicity of two-way communication and user control. Interactivity
allows real-time reaction, which means that the actions of the user instantaneously alter
the mediated environment. However, it also refers to the immediacy of response, as the
users’ input into a communication and the response they receive from it are simultane-
ous (Liu & Shrum, 2002). Previous research shows that interactivity increases the
extent of cognitive elaboration compared with traditional media or conditions of low
interactivity (Liu & Shrum, 2002). According to van Noort and colleagues (2012),
interacting with a website might evoke feelings of flow (described as an optimal enjoy-
able experience that causes users to feel immersed in the online activity; Hoffman &
Novak, 1996), which in turn leads to more elaborate information processing.
Hence, we expect that the use of incongruent (i.e., relevant but unexpected) celeb-
rity endorsers may trigger people’s curiosity, creating an inner tension due to the unex-
pected nature of the endorser. This tension will trigger a human need or desire to
relieve the tension through some form of resolution (Mandler, 1982). Resolution of
incongruence may be achieved by cognitively elaborating on the “fit” or “link”
between the endorser and the nonprofit organizations, which then leads to the conclu-
sion that the endorser is relevant, for example, because of past expertise in the domain
of nonprofit communication. This implies, however, that processing (and resolving)
incongruent information demands more cognitive effort and resources than processing
congruent information does. Indeed, several authors (e.g., Kamins, 1990; Murphy &
Zajonc, 1993; Wentura, 1999) have found that congruence facilitates processing
because the relevant knowledge structures have been activated. In contrast to
6 Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 

incongruent information, congruent information is expected, easier to understand, and

therefore less demanding in cognitive effort. Hence, we expect that the level of web-
site interactivity will have a different impact for a congruent versus incongruent
endorser.
When the website context is highly interactive, the use of an incongruent celebrity
endorser is expected to be more positive than the use of a congruent endorser because
the increased cognitive processing stimulated by the interactivity can facilitate the
process of resolving incongruence. Once this is resolved, gratifying and positive feel-
ings of satisfaction, relief, efficiency, and control are evoked (Fleck & Maille, 2010;
Lee & Schumann, 2004). According to the affect transfer mechanism (W. E. Baker,
1999), this positive affect can, through an unconscious mechanism, be transferred to
the user’s evaluation of the website, and thus influence his or her experience with it.
The use of a congruent celebrity endorser is expected to be less effective in an interac-
tive environment compared with an incongruent one, because congruent information
is not surprising and is easy to understand. Hence, increased cognitive processing
induced by website interactivity may not lead to positive evaluations of congruent
endorsers, because the ad will not be perceived as creative, or even dull (Kononova &
Yuan, 2015).
When the website context is non-interactive, incongruence is not expected to be
resolved. In this condition, people are less motivated to process the incongruent infor-
mation, because this processing is not triggered by interactivity. According to Mandler
(1982), incongruence that remains unresolved evokes negative affective reactions such
as feelings of incomprehension and frustration. As a result, on non-interactive websites,
an incongruent celebrity endorser might lead to a less favorable experience with the
website compared with a congruent celebrity endorser (Fleck & Maille, 2010). Under
conditions of low elaboration, the use of a congruent celebrity will be more effective as
it allows predictability, is in line with people’s expectations, and facilitates a positive
affect transfer (Campbell & Goodstein, 2001; Feltham & Arnold, 1994; Goodstein,
1993; Sengupta et al., 1997). Hence, we propose the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1a (H1a): In an interactive website context, an incongruent celebrity

endorser will lead to a more positive website experience than a congruent celebrity
endorser will.
Hypothesis 1b (H1b): In a non-interactive website condition, a congruent celebrity
endorser will lead to a more positive website experience than an incongruent celeb-
rity endorser will.

Previous research (Bagozzi & Dholakia, 1999; Hoffman & Novak, 1996) suggests
that creating a compelling online environment may result in numerous positive out-
comes. Indeed, studies regarding e-commerce suggest that the user’s website experi-
ence (determined by factors such as website attractiveness and quality; Sundar &
Kalyanaraman, 2004) has a significant effect on a number of important marketing
outcomes, such as people’s attitude toward the product or organization (e.g., Koufaris,
Kambil, & LaBarbera, 2002; Novak, Hoffman, & Yung, 2000), and different
Panic et al. 7

behavioral intentions, such as purchase intention or intention to return to the website

(e.g., Bai, Law, & Wen, 2008; Lynch, Kent, & Srinivasan, 2001; Skadberg & Kimmel,
2004). In this case, a positive attitude toward the advertising vehicle carries over to the
embedded advertisement, which in turn produces more positive evaluations of the
brand and affects people’s purchase requests (Brengman & Geuens, 2004; Mallinckrodt
& Mizerski, 2007). Although the effect of web experience has not yet been investi-
gated in a social marketing context, we expect a similar positive effect to occur on
people’s affective (i.e., attitude toward the charitable organization) and behavioral
(i.e., their intention to donate money) responses. We focus on these two specific out-
come variables because they are both considered to be significant predictors of actual
donating behavior (Smith & McSweeney, 2007).
In sum, we expect that the moderating effect of interactivity and celebrity (in)con-
gruence on attitude toward the charity and donation intentions will be mediated by
website experience (Preacher, Rucker, & Hayes, 2007).
In an interactive context, the enhanced website experience that is evoked by incon-
gruence will transfer to people’s responses to the charitable organization, leading to a
more positive attitude toward the charitable organization and an increased donation
intention.
In other words, we only expect this positive transfer mechanism to occur in cases
of high website interactivity. In a non-interactive context, however, the conditions for
resolving incongruence are not met and we do not expect a mediation effect of website
experience.

Hypothesis 2: In an interactive website context, website experience mediates the

impact of celebrity incongruence on (a) attitude toward the charitable organization
and (b) donation intention.

Method
Design and Procedure
A 2 (celebrity endorser congruence: congruent [relevant but expected] vs. incongruent
[relevant but unexpected]) by 2 (website interactivity: interactive vs. non-interactive)
between-participants experimental design was used to test the hypotheses. To avoid
confounding effects based on the gender of the endorser, a male and a female endorser
were selected for each condition. To avoid confounds from prior attitudes, a fictitious
nonprofit organization (named Home and Future for Children Foundation), raising
funds to provide a safe home for young children, was created for this experiment.

Stimuli
First, to manipulate celebrity endorser congruence, 16 different celebrities (8 men and 8
women), who are known to endorse nonprofit organizations, were pretested on perceived
congruence with the nonprofit organization. Endorser congruence was measured with
8 Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 

one item stating, “This person matches, or fits a nonprofit organization committed to
providing a safe home for young children,” followed by a 7-point Likert-type scale rang-
ing from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Also, the familiarity with the celebrity was
controlled for, making sure that all the respondents knew the celebrity endorsers. Twenty
respondents (10 women, M age = 24.95, SD = 5.86) participated in this pretest and rated
all 16 celebrities on perceived congruence and familiarity. Four celebrity endorsers were
selected for the actual experiment: a male and female celebrity who were rated high on
both familiarity and congruence with the nonprofit organization, and a male and female
celebrity who rated high on familiarity but low on congruence with the organization. The
gender of the celebrity was controlled for to generalize the results.
All of the selected endorsers have been known to support nonprofit organizations
in the past, making them relevant endorsers, because they have expertise in the domain
of nonprofit communication. The congruent endorsers are well-known ambassadors
for charity organizations, which help children, making them expected endorsers for
the topic (i.e., young children). The incongruent endorsers are unexpected, as they
have not been linked to nonprofit organizations that are in any way related to children
in the past (Fleck & Quester, 2007).
The respondents were randomly exposed to either the male or the female celebrity
messages. A gender match between the respondent and the celebrity did not have
impact on the effects of website interactivity nor celebrity congruence on website
experience, attitude toward the charity, or donation intention (all Fs < 1.23, ps > .26).
There were no interactions among these three independent variables for the discussed
dependent variables (all Fs < 0.17, ps > .68). Hence, the male and female conditions
were taken together for further analyses, resulting in four final conditions (Celebrity
congruence × Website interactivity).
Second, to manipulate website interactivity, a new website for the fictitious non-
profit organization was created using WiX software. This website consisted of five
webpages: “homepage,” “who are we,” “donate,” “projects,” and “contact.” Each time,
the (congruent vs. incongruent) celebrity endorser was integrated into the homepage,
describing him or her as the ambassador of the organization. In addition, a picture of the
celebrity and a quote supporting the organization were added (see Figure 1). Interactivity
was manipulated by either asking respondents to actually surf on the website for 2 min,
or by making them watch a video of someone surfing on this website for 2 min. Through
this procedure, the aspect of active control, which is a key dimension of interactivity,
was manipulated. The interactive condition involves active control, as the user can
browse the different pages on the website, click on the interactive features, and so con-
trol the content that he or she is viewing. In the non-interactive condition, the user pas-
sively watches another person surfing on this website, lacking active control.

Procedure
The data were gathered using an online questionnaire, distributing all participants ran-
domly to one of the four conditions. The respondents were presented with a cover
story asking them to evaluate the new website of the nonprofit organization named
Panic et al. 9

Figure 1.  Screenshot of the website showing the (male, congruent) celebrity endorser.

Home and Future for Children Foundation (HFCF), a fictional charitable organization
that comes up for a safe home for children. After reading the story, half of the respon-
dents received the instruction to watch a 2-min video in which a person is surfing on
the HFCF website (showing either a congruent or incongruent endorser on the homep-
age). The other half was asked to browse the HFCF website for 2 min. In both cases,
respondents had to click on a link that directed them to the video or the website. After
watching the video or surfing the website, respondents were asked to return to the
questionnaire to complete questions that measured their experience with the website,
attitude toward the nonprofit organization, donation intentions, and a manipulation
check of perceived congruence and perceived website interactivity.

Measures
First, the perceived congruence between the celebrity endorser and the nonprofit orga-
nization was measured by the three-item semantic differential scale of Rifon, Choi,
Trimble, and Li (2004; α = .94): “not compatible/compatible, bad fit/good fit, incon-
gruent–congruent.” Next, perceived interactivity was measured with a one-item
semantic differential: “My experience with the website was very passive (0); very
10 Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 

active (7).” Familiarity with the celebrity was measured by asking, “Do you know this
person?” with the response option of yes or no. Attitude toward the charity was mea-
sured with the three-item semantic differential scale of Manning, Sprott, and Miyazaki
(1998; α = .96): “Bad–Good, Unfavorable–Favorable, Negative–Positive.” Attitude
toward the celebrity was measured by a similar three-item semantic differential scale
from Manning et al. (1998; α = .99). Website experience was measured by a four-item
scale (Sundar & Kalyanaraman, 2004; α = .87): “appealing, attractive, exciting, high
quality.” Donation intention was measured with a three-item scale (Coyle & Thorson,
2001; α = .79): “It is very likely that I will donate money to HFCF; The next time I
donate money, I will donate it to HFCF; Suppose that a friend called you last night to
get your advice on which organization to donate money for. Would you recommend
donating money to HFCF?” To conclude, involvement with the issue was measured
with a three-item scale from Chandrasekaran (2004; α = .81): “I’m particularly inter-
ested in the issue; Given my personal interests, this issue is not very relevant to me;
Overall, I am quite involved with charitable organizations such as HFCF.” All items
were rated on 7-point Likert-type scales.

Participants
A total of 122 respondents (M age = 27.47, SD = 10.22; 65 women) participated in this
study (using a snowball sampling method, and taken from a database constructed by a
European university with participants who were willing to participate in research).
The participants were treated in compliance with American Psychological Association
(APA) ethical standards. All respondents knew the celebrity portrayed on the website.
Each condition in the study contained more than 20 participants (Hair, Anderson,
Tatham, & Black, 1998).

Results
First, a manipulation check revealed that respondents perceived the congruent endorser
(M = 5.22) as more congruent than the incongruent endorser was (M = 3.87), t(115) =
−5.87, p < .001. In addition, the results showed that the interactive condition was per-
ceived as more interactive (M = 3.55) than the non-interactive condition was (M =
2.75), t(114) = −3.29, p = .001.
First, the interaction effect between celebrity congruence and website interactivity
on website experience was examined. Indeed, the analysis revealed a significant inter-
action effect between these two independent variables on website experience
(B = −.99, standard error [SE] = .44, t = −2.24, p = .027; see Figure 2). In particular,
this analysis showed that, in the interactive condition, incongruent celebrities incite a
more positive experience with the website than congruent celebrities do (B = −.62,
SE = .29, t = −2.13, p = .035), supporting H1a. Contrary to what was expected in H1b,
however, a congruent celebrity incites a slightly more positive experience with the
website than an incongruent celebrity in the non-interactive condition, but this effect
is not significant (B = .36, SE = .33, t = 1.09, p = .28).
Panic et al. 11

Website Experience
7

Non-Interacve
5 Interacve

4
p= .57 p< .001

3
Congruent Incongruent

Figure 2.  Interaction effect between celebrity congruence and website interactivity on
website experience.

Website
experience
Interactivity

a b

Celebrity c Attitude toward

congruence the charity

Figure 3.  A moderated mediation analysis with celebrity congruence as the independent
variable, website interactivity as the moderator, experience with the website as the mediator,
and attitude toward the charity as the dependent variable (according to the Process macro of
Hayes, 2013, Model 8).

Next, a moderated mediation analysis using the Process macro of Hayes (2013,
Model 8, 5,000 bootstrap resamples) was conducted to test the hypotheses. In this
analysis, celebrity congruence was the independent variable, and attitude toward the
charity and donation intention were the dependent variables. In addition, website inter-
activity is regarded as the variable that affects the direction and/or strength of the rela-
tion between the dependent and the independent variables (i.e., the moderator).
Experience with the website, however, is regarded as the mediator as it accounts for
the relation between the independent and dependent variables (see Figure 3).
12 Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 

The results for attitude toward the charity revealed that the mediating effect of
website experience on the relationship between celebrity congruence and the attitude
toward the charity was different for the two conditions of the moderator, website inter-
activity (B = −.24, SE = .15, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [−0.6780, −0.0293]). In
particular, in the interactive condition, the results showed that celebrity incongruence
significantly affects attitude toward the charity through website experience (B = −.15,
SE = .10, 95% CI = [−0.4178, −0.0175]), supporting H2a. In the non-interactive condi-
tion, no mediating effect was found (B = .09, SE = .10, 95% CI = [−0.0491, 0.3811]).
When adding celebrity attitude as a covariate in the model, the moderation of the
indirect effect on donation intention remains significant (B = −.26, SE = .16, 95% CI
= [−0.6833, −0.0184]). However, when adding involvement with the issue as a control
variable in the analysis, the moderation of the indirect effect on donation intention
becomes insignificant (B = −.20, SE = .17, 95% CI = [−0.6430, 0.0493]).
Similar effects were found for donation intention (B = −.6046, SE = .26, 95% CI =
[−1.1544, −0.1433]). In particular, in the interactive condition, the results showed a
significant indirect effect of celebrity incongruence on donation intention through
website experience (B = −.40, SE = .16, 95% CI = [−0.7412, −0.1105]), supporting
H2b. However, in the non-interactive condition, no mediating effect was found (B =
.20, SE = .20, 95% CI = [−0.1863, 0.6008]). To conclude, the moderation of the indi-
rect effect on donation intention remains significant, both when adding celebrity atti-
tude (B = −0.67, SE = .26, 95% CI = [−1.2292, −0.1907]) and involvement with the
issue as a covariate in the model (B = −0.54, SE = .22, 95% CI = [−1.0425, −0.1660]).

Discussion, Conclusion, and Suggestions for Further

Research
The main goal of this article was to provide insights for nonprofit organizations regard-
ing the use of congruent versus incongruent message elements to increase attitudes
and fundraising intentions in an interactive website environment. Although traditional
theories such as the match-up hypothesis (Kamins, 1990) advocate congruence of
message elements, recent studies have revealed that under certain conditions, incon-
gruence can be more effective. However, there is still very little insight into what
conditions actually lead to positive effects from incongruence and how these positive
effects are achieved. In addition, most congruence studies are conducted in a tradi-
tional media context, leaving the question of the effectiveness of (in)congruence in an
interactive, digital context unanswered. Taking these voids into account, the present
study investigated how nonprofit organizations can deploy the use of (in)congruent
celebrity endorsers (a well-known and frequently adopted social marketing technique)
in an interactive website environment as a way to generate favorable responses in
terms of attitudes and fundraising intentions.
The results suggest that in the nonprofit sector, endorser incongruence may be an inter-
esting and refreshing strategy in an online context. More specifically, when using an
online website as a communication tool, the use of an incongruent celebrity endorser
evokes positive effects on the attitude toward the charity. The interactive nature of the
Panic et al. 13

website may provide an increase in cognitive elaboration, which is needed to process and
resolve the incongruence between the celebrity and the nonprofit organization. Once
incongruence is resolved, positive feelings are aroused, which appear to transfer to the
users’ feelings toward the charitable organization, and even increase their donation inten-
tion. As suggested by Fleck and Maille (2010), the act of processing incongruence results
in gratifying and positive feelings. Our results suggest that these lead to positive experi-
ences of the website. This positive website experience can in turn lead to an increase in
people’s positive attitude toward the charitable organization and their donation intention.
This implies that despite the traditional preference for congruence, the use of incongruent
elements can be an effective strategy for online nonprofit communication.
However, some suggestions for further research arise. First, this study considered
interactivity as a binary variable (interactive vs. non-interactive). It would be interest-
ing to consider interactivity as a continuous variable. As discussed in the theoretical
section of this article, interactivity may lead to greater immersion, greater cognitive
elaboration, and more intense information processing. This may enhance the process-
ing and “resolving” of incongruence and provide a positive website experience (Ariely,
2000; Coyle & Thorson, 2001; Liu & Shrum, 2002). Consequently, it can be assumed
that the higher the level of interactivity, the more likely these effects will be. However,
previous research suggests that, at a certain point, the level of interactivity may be too
high (e.g., by integrating too many links or interactive features in the website), result-
ing in “cognitive overload.” This means that an increase in cognitive load triggered by
interactivity generates a positive effect on information processing until a certain
threshold is reached, at which point, the positive effect of interactivity backfires (Gygi,
1990; Kirschner, 2002; Lang, 2000). Further research should investigate this balance
between the positive and negative effects of website interactivity. In addition, other
aspects of interactivity (e.g., interacting with the celebrity endorser through social
media) could be investigated.
Second, the study shows that when interactivity is missing, the “fit” between the
endorser and the nonprofit organization makes no difference in a website context.
Although we expected a congruence effect to occur in the non-interactive condition,
the results did not support our assumption. A possible explanation is that (although
passively) watching someone browse an interactive website still receives more atten-
tion and evokes a higher level of processing than a traditional advertising context does.
Browsing a website is often described as a “lean forward” activity, whereas watching
a television commercial, for example, is considered a more passive “lean back” expe-
rience (Cui, Chipchase, & Jung, 2007). Therefore, it is possible that watching someone
browse a website increased cognitive processing. An alternative explanation may be
that individuals in a non-interactive context are only partially involved with the con-
tent, which may imply that heuristic processing of this content takes place (Gigerenzer
& Todd, 1999). As such, celebrity endorsers, both congruent and incongruent ones,
may elicit positive evaluations. Therefore, further research should include actual mea-
sures of processing level (e.g., thought-listing procedures), as well as a traditional
non-interactive context to compare the level of processing and test the congruence
effect of the celebrity endorsement.
14 Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 

Third, this study focused on both attitude toward the charitable organization and
donation intention as dependent variables, because these are considered significant
predictors of actual donating behavior (Smith & McSweeney, 2007). Future studies
should focus on people’s actual donation behavior, because behavioral intentions are
not always consistent with actual behavior.
Next, this study concludes that incongruent (celebrity) endorsers may be an effec-
tive strategy to use in an interactive website context to increase people’s affective and
behavioral responses to charitable organizations. In the last few decades, however, the
emphasis has shifted toward an integrated marketing communication strategy, where
online communication strategies such as the organizational website are often inte-
grated into the overall communication strategy. Because the results of this study sug-
gest that different online and offline formats may demand different (advertising)
strategies, future research should investigate whether incongruence also works better
(than congruence) in an interactive offline (advertising) context. For instance, it is pos-
sible that adding an interactive element (e.g., a QR code, which refers to a barcode that
can be scanned by a smartphone and directs the consumer to a website) to offline
advertisements, such as billboards, may lead to higher effectiveness of incongruent
compared with congruent advertising strategies.
Also, in this study, the use of relevant and expected (congruent) versus relevant and
unexpected (incongruent) endorsers was investigated. The use of unrelated and unex-
pected endorsers, however, was not looked into. Further research could include this
condition to investigate what happens when incongruence cannot be resolved.
In addition, in this study, we chose to operationalize (in)congruence by using celebrity
endorsers, as this marketing technique is often used in nonprofit marketing. However,
future studies should test whether interactivity is also beneficial for other forms of (in)
congruence by manipulating elements of the message, such as the communication strategy
(use of humor, guilt, fear, etc.), website form (layout, colors, music), or message content.
Finally, it would be interesting to examine whether certain personality traits have a
moderating impact on the processing of incongruent content. As such, it is possible
that certain individuals (e.g., individuals who are used to engaging actively with web-
sites and who often use social media) need less cognitive resources to process incon-
gruent content in an interactive context.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank Indrani De Brouwer for her help in collecting the data.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.
Panic et al. 15

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Author Biographies
Katarina Panic is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Communication Sciences at
Ghent University, Belgium. Her research interest focuses on the domain of social marketing,
more specifically on the use of new media in social marketing communication.
Liselot Hudders is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Communication Sciences at
Ghent University, Belgium. Her research focuses on the domains of consumer behavior and
marketing communications with a special interest in consumption and well-being and advertis-
ing literacy.
Veroline Cauberghe is an assistant professor at the Department of Communication Sciences at
Ghent University, Belgium. Her research focus lays on marketing communication, social mar-
keting, and crisis communication.