Tweet, Tweet, Cash? The Role of Geographical Dispersion in Online and Offline Mobilization of Campaign Donations

Digital media provides non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with ample organizing opportunities due to digital medias large reach, low participation threshold, personalization options, and low operating costs. Consequently, digital media as a mobilizing structure has received vast attention among organizational and information systems scholars. However, there is limited research on how these online and offline spheres jointly result in collective action outcomes and what the boundary conditions are. Based on the task-media fit hypothsis, this paper studies how geographical dispersion of team members within a fundraising campaign moderates the influence of online and offline mobilization on collecting donations over time. We use a unique panel dataset of Movember's fundraising process that contains both fundraisers Twitter activity and fundraising events.