Individual donations and social media communication: Italian cultural NPOs' strategies after the pandemic

5 Introduction As there is a dearth of research in this area, the present study aims to identify the most effective social media communication strategies for increasing individual monetary donations to Italian cultural NPOs in the post-pandemic era. However, although we have attempted to be as exhaustive as possible, we recognise the vastness of the subject and therefore do not exclude the possibility that future research may provide additional strategies to those presented in this study. Furthermore, since culture has always been ranked among the least supported causes, with medical research and social causes always taking the lead, special consideration has been given to cultural welfare. Specifically, our survey also examines whether highlighting the social and health impacts generated by cultural NPOs would increase donations and move culture up in the list of donors’ preferred causes. Hence, for the purposes of our research we adopted a two-step mixed methodology. Initially we conducted in-depth interviews with three Italian cultural NPOs and two cultural fundraising consultants for third-sector organizations. Afterward, we administered two questionnaires for two distinct target groups – i.e.: actual and potential Italian cultural donors – to test their inclination towards the strategies, or aspects of them, emerged during the interviews. We have therefore organized the present thesis into four chapters, following a path from the general to the specific. Indeed, Chapter 1 opens with a brief introduction to cultural fundraising before delving into the existing literature on individual giving and defining the lacunae and the research question. Thereafter, Chapter 2 defines the empirical context of this investigation, Chapter 3 explains in detail the methodology adopted, and Chapter 4 reports the findings. Lastly, the Conclusions provide a concise overview of our work and suggest future directions for research.