From Influence to Engagement: Communicating to Build Support for Environmental Causes

Justification of research project

A growing number of studies are examining the mechanisms of persuasion that can encourage prosocial behaviors. These behaviors refer to actions aimed at supporting, helping, or cooperating with others, and reflect a concern for others as well as for future generations. They manifest themselves, in particular, through environmentally conscious choices, such as supporting biodiversity conservation or making donations.

At the same time, a recent study by Nature Action Québec (2026) shows that, since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, a portion of the population has gradually become less engaged in environmental protection. In this context, raising public awareness of environmental issues seems crucial, given the current climate emergency. To this end, leveraging influencers appears to be a particularly effective strategy, especially when it comes to encouraging donations to environmental causes. Generally speaking, systematic reviews on influencer marketing show that social media influencers have a significant impact on consumer engagement and purchase intent. However, in the field of prosocial influencer marketing, researchers point to the need for further research on the effectiveness of influencers in promoting social causes and fostering prosocial behaviors.

Drawing on the work of Rifon et al. (2004) regarding the importance of consistency in collaboration between a sponsoring brand and a foundation, as well as the lack of knowledge as a major barrier to prosocial behavior, we propose a model of the key determinants of intentions to donate to an environmental cause.

Research question

To carry out this project successfully, we are considering several research questions.

Are there other emotional factors to consider? Can tears of joy and sadness be perceived as inauthentic?

Are the scenarios correctly formulated and structured, and do they allow for proper isolation of the variables and levels of variance?

Although the factorial design consists of 12 scenarios involving 3 variables, have we omitted any variables that appear to be essential? Should we add other studies?

Can we control for the perception of “greenwashing” that may arise when an influencer endorses an animal welfare cause?

Research purpose

This study demonstrates the relevance of the prosocial domain and highlights the need to assess influencers’ motivations in promoting causes. More specifically, the results are consistent with those of Riffon et al. (2004), showing that the effect of perceived congruence between the influencer and the promoted cause on attitudes toward a nonprofit organization is mediated by the attribution of intrinsic or extrinsic motivations, as well as by the influencer’s perceived reliability. The study also illustrates the important role of followers’ willingness to seek information about a promoted cause as a crucial pre-behavioral step in donation intention—an aspect often overlooked in the literature on prosocial marketing.

From a managerial perspective, it is essential to ensure that the influencer shares clear affinities with the cause being promoted in order to avoid raising skepticism about the collaboration, thereby increasing the likelihood that the influencer will be perceived as trustworthy. Furthermore, given the ethical issues at stake and the decline in sustainable behaviors, governments, nonprofits, and marketers should not hesitate to collaborate with influencers to raise public awareness and influence behavior—especially since influencers have proven to be effective agents of persuasion in prosocial contexts.

The study is limited to a single dimension of source credibility (reliability) and excludes other determinants and/or moderators that might influence behavior, such as the number of followers. Future research on prosocial influencer marketing should continue to explore the persuasion mechanisms involved in promoting causes, particularly by comparing these mechanisms across different types of causes.

Research approach

To assess the factors influencing the intention to donate to an environmental cause, a quantitative cross-sectional survey research design was used.

Data collection was conducted using an online survey of a paid panel consisting of 585 respondents from Quebec aged 18 to 50. Before evaluating the variables used in this study, participants were first asked to read a brief fictional description of an influencer passionate about hiking in the great outdoors, including a mention of a collaboration with a nonprofit organization—also fictional—whose mission is to protect biodiversity and wildlife in an environmental context. The choice of an influencer passionate about hiking in nature was selected as a stimulus due to the expected variability in the responses it could generate when assessing the perceived congruence between the influencer and the cause.

A serial mediation analysis model was then developed using the PROCESS macro (Model 6) by Hayes (2022), incorporating all variables as continuous variables. This model examines the direct and indirect effects of influencer-cause congruence on donation intentions—via the influencer’s motivation in promoting the cause, the influencer’s perceived trustworthiness, attitudes toward the nonprofit, and the willingness to seek information about the nonprofit and its cause.