Nonprofit Organizations, Social Media, and Trust: How Self-Congruence Can Help Organizations Choose the Right Social Media Endorsers

Nonprofit organizations have been increasingly professionalizing their presence on social media to influence potential donors' perceptions and behaviors. Thus, an increasing number of organizations have started to partner with social media endorsers (i.e., influencers and celebrities). In doing so, organizations face the question of whether they should partner with endorsers who represent the potential donors' ideal self or with endorsers who reflect the potential donors' actual self . To examine this question, the present study is based on a cross-sectional survey with 419 social media users. Data are analyzed based on a structural equation model. Findings demonstrate that matching potential donors' ideal self-concept positively affects competence belief, while aligning with potential donors' actual self-concept positively increases benevolence/integrity belief. In addition, the results show that both competence belief and benevolence/integrity belief are of vital importance, as both factors positively influence attention to a social media post, which affects behavioral outcomes.