Public Motives for Participation in Charity Sporting Events
The article by Bennett et al. (2007) provides a report on the motives driving Britons to participation in mass charity sporting events. The article claims this to be a leading method of charity fund-raising, identifies the motives which encourage public engagement of such charities and distinguishes the motives of 'serious-minded' individuals which also engage these charities.
A study conducted in 2007 by Bennett et al. seeks to examine the motives which encourage public participation in mass charity sporting events. Proceeding from the observation that there are hundreds of annual opportunities for participation in such events, the article is designed to provide those who sponsor such events with some insight into how best to court potential participants. Entitled "Motivations for Participating in Charity-Affiliated Sporting Events," this would be published in the Journal of Customer Behaviour and offers charity sporting event planners both endorsement and insight for improvement.
A Summary:
The article provides an exhaustive discussion on various motives driving members of the general public to engage in such events as the 10k, the 5k, the fun run or the walkathon. A first point which the article makes as a rationale for the study undertaken is that these events have proven to be generally effective in raising money and awareness for such causes as public health issues. Indeed, the article indicates that this has become a favored method of including the public in efforts to address conditions such as breast cancer, autism and multiple sclerosis and in broader efforts to eliminate obesity and encourage physical activeness.
The article follows this point with an examination of the major motives driving members of the public to participate in such charity events. Among those which emerge as the most important and most commonly overlapping causes for participation, the article cites " (i) personal involvement with the good cause(s) supported by an occasion, (ii) opportunities to lead a healthy lifestyle provided by the event, (iii) an individual's involvement with the sport in question, and (iv) the desire to mix socially with other attendees." (Bennett et al., 155)
The article also makes a point of distinguishing a 'serious-minded' demographic for consideration, within which motives for participation take on slightly different proportions. That is to say that the article differentiates between general participants and those with a more active orientation toward both exercise and charity engagement. In this case, motives which emerged as most important were health and fitness; a previous involvement with the activity in question; and a more general social tendency toward high profile charity activities. (Bennett et al., 160)
My critique:
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