Kwantlen Psychology Student Journal
Issue 3, July 2021
Kwantlen Polytechnic University

The Phoenix Society: A Prosocial Donation Campaign
Megan Lawrence1
Abstract
This paper discusses a hypothetical donation campaign supporting the Phoenix Society, a
treatment and rehabilitation organization. For this donation campaign a brochure was created
to persuade people into donating to the Phoenix Society. This paper explains the different
persuasion techniques used in the brochure: the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), guilt
appeals, the social norm approach, attitude functions, and the reasoned action approach. Each
of these techniques are examined to demonstrate why they would be effective at persuading
people to donate.
Keywords: persuasion, donation, influence, elaboration likelihood model, guilt appeals

1

Megan.Lawrence@email.kpu.ca; Written for Attitudes and Persuasion (PSYC 3210). Special thanks to Dr. Arleigh
Reichl for recommending this submission.

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The Phoenix Society: A Prosocial Donation Campaign
Addiction and overdose are becoming an increasing social justice issue in British
Columbia (BC). Since 2016, BC has been in a public health crisis due to the province’s opioid
epidemic, which has only continued to get worse. The year 2020 was deemed the deadliest
year for drug overdose, with an average of five deaths per day in BC (Ross, 2021). This crisis
has made it even more important for treatment facilities to be available to those who need
them. The Phoenix Society (www.pheonixsociety.com) is one of these organizations; they are
a multi-service charity that focuses on drug and alcohol rehabilitation and support for
homelessness. Located in the Lower Mainland of BC, the Society provides addiction recovery
programs for men and women, employment, education, and housing assistance. One of the
Phoenix Society’s goals for 2020 was to increase donations from the community. With this in
mind, the present project proposes and analyzes a hypothetical campaign to solicit donations
for the Phoenix Society. This was accomplished through the creation of a fictitious brochure
(Figures 1 and 2) meant to promote the organization through various persuasion techniques,
including the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), guilt appeals, the social norm approach,
attitude functions, and the reasoned action approach.
The intended audience for this brochure is people living in neighbourhoods such as
Newton, Surrey, which has a high rate of addiction and homelessness (Meuse, 2016). People
in this neighbourhood are more familiar with issues pertaining to addiction. Targeting an
audience with a higher involvement in the issue of addiction may help persuasion techniques
be more effective (Perloff, 2020).
One persuasive approach used in the brochure is the Elaboration Likelihood Model
(ELM)—a model that determines when people are likely to think deeply about persuasive
messages (Perloff, 2020). The ELM explains the conditions under which people will process
information either centrally (i.e., critical thinking) or peripherally (i.e., simple cues). Through
the central processing route, people will think more critically about the presented arguments
and carefully evaluate them to inform their attitude on the message. Whereas through the
peripheral processing route, people will rely on external cues such as the expertise or
attractiveness of the speaker to inform their attitude on the message. When people use the
central processing route, they are more likely to create stable attitude changes (Perloff, 2020).

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This project aims towards central processing route to create a more stable attitude change in
the target audience.
Messages that encourage peripheral processing are avoided, such as celebrity
endorsements and availability heuristics. Availability heuristics are examples that
immediately come to mind about a certain topic (which is addiction in this brochure).
Peripheral routes of processing create shorter and more unstable attitude changes (Perloff,
2020). Thus, to persuade people to donate, this route was avoided.
A study by Petty et al. (1981 as cited in Perloff, 2020) showed that people with higher
levels of involvement with an issue thought more critically about it. Therefore, these
brochures are intended for circulation in neighbourhoods with higher rates of addiction. This
would encourage people who are frequently exposed to these issues to support the Phoenix
Society. The brochure provides strong arguments as to why people should donate; it includes
information on the success rate of the Phoenix Society’s programs (see Figure 2). This
information provides evidence that the Phoenix Society is effective and therefore, allows
people to critically evaluate the evidence listed on the brochure. The combination of high
involvement and strong arguments supports the engagement of central processing of
information and stable changes in attitudes towards addiction (Perloff, 2020). Hence, the use
of central processing approach for the brochure is likely to persuade people to donate to the
Phoenix Society.
The second approach involves the use of guilt appeals to persuade people to donate.
Evidence has shown that guilt and guilt appeals can be useful in persuading people to change
their behaviours and attitudes (Perloff, 2020). Guilt appeals are most effective when they
create a sense of empathy and efficacy within the audience. Messages that use guilt appeals
should create empathy, instill a responsibility to help, and convince people that their actions
can make a difference (Perloff, 2020). However, it is also important that guilt appeals do not
evoke a negative reaction such as anger or irritation. According to Hibbert et al. (2007), guilt
appeals that evoke a moderate level of guilt are the most effective. A moderate level of guilt
avoids a negative response of anger, irritation, and shame, which may arise when guilt
messaging is overly explicit and graphic. When designing the brochure, to create a sense of
empathy, a panel in the brochure explains the impact of addiction on individuals and on the
community in BC (see Figure 2). The following phrases highlight negative effects of

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addiction: “severe consequences,” “opioid epidemic,” and “individuals suffering.” These
phrases are chosen to create a sense of guilt and empathy in the reader. Phrasing was kept
from being too intense (graphic or overly explicit) to avoid inciting too much guilt.
Additionally, because the audience includes members of communities highly effected by
addiction, the presented negative consequences were intended to make these members feel a
sense of responsibility to help. To create a sense of efficacy the brochure presents information
on how to donate (see Figure 1), how donations help the Phoenix Society, and how the
Phoenix Society helps battle addiction in the community (see Figure 2). This includes phrases
like “you too can help” and “you can directly support the Phoenix Society.” These phrases
show that actions help, and that the audience can effectively contribute to battling addiction in
their communities. These guilt appeals would create a strong sense of efficacy in the readers
which would convince them to donate to the Phoenix Society.
A third approach taken in designing the brochure is the social norms approach, which
focuses on communicating social norms, persuading people into acting in alignment with
presented norms. By communicating the importance of social norms, people feel an increased
pressure or obligation to change their behaviours and attitudes (Perloff, 2020). This approach
is related to social adjustive attitude functions and the reasoned action approach. To create a
descriptive norm on charitable giving, the brochure provides statistics on charitable giving in
Canada. Descriptive norms show what the majority of people do. Research shows that when
people “learn that a majority of other people have donated to charity, they are more likely to
donate themselves” (Agerström et al., 2016, p. 148). In the brochure, statistics like “84% of
Canadians donate to charity” (Turcotte, 2012, p. 34) and “The average annual donation in
Canada is $446” (Turcotte, 2012, p.18) convey a normative belief to the reader that Canadians
are charitable and regularly give to charity. Awareness of this social norm motivates the
reader to donate to the Phoenix Society. This approach was also very similar to a study by
Lapinski et al. (2013 as cited in Perloff, 2020). Advertising posters with statistics on men’s
hand washing behaviours in men’s washrooms led to an increase in hand washing and
positive attitudes towards hand washing. Therefore, by following a similar approach with the
brochure, it is likely that the brochure will be effective at changing attitudes and behaviours
towards donating to the Phoenix Society.

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LAWRENCE, M.
The social norms approach is related to the social adjustive attitude function and as

such, the brochure is designed with this attitude function in mind. Functional theories of
attitudes focus on the reasons why people hold the attitudes they do, and the types of
functions these attitudes have. The social adjustive function serves as a way for people to fit
into a reference group—a standard for comparison. With this attitude function, people adapt
their attitudes to that of the reference group even if they do not truly believe in the position.
Then, the attitude becomes functional, as it allows individuals to gain social approval and be
accepted into the reference group (Perloff, 2020). The brochure appeals to the social adjustive
function because it makes use of descriptive and social norms, towards which, people would
adjust their attitudes. For instance, if someone read the brochure and see the descriptive
norms, they would adjust their attitude to fit the descriptive norm—in this case, they will
donate to align with the described charitable giving in Canada. However, the social adjustive
function is not persuasive to everyone. Research has shown that people who are high selfmonitors are more likely to have attitude functions that are social-adjustive (DeBono, 1987).
High self-monitors are more aware of their public perception and thus, more likely to change
their attitudes to match a situation. This means that they are more likely to have a socialadjustive attitude function because it allows them to gain approval and acceptance from others
by changing their attitude to that of the reference group. Therefore, the brochure is more
effective at persuading high self-monitors than low self-monitors. According to DeBono
(1987), high-self monitors are likely to show more consideration in thinking about an
argument and elaborating on it after being presented a message appealing to the social
adjustive function. Since the brochure takes a social adjustive approach, it would be effective
at persuading people who are high self-monitors into donating to the Phoenix society.
Finally, the brochure uses aspects of the reasoned action approach. In this approach
there are three main factors that predict behaviour: attitude, perceived norms, and perceived
behavioural control. Perceived norms are the perceived social expectations towards a
behaviour: what other people do and what other people think someone should do. Perceived
behavioural control is how much someone believes they can perform a behaviour, and this is
very important because a lack of perceived behavioural control can prevent someone from
completing a behaviour, even if the other two factors are positive. Each of these factors can
help predict someone’s intentions of completing a behaviour, and the intention predicts the

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actual likelihood of completing the behaviour (Perloff, 2020). Although the brochure has no
way of measuring these factors, each of these factors was considered when designing the
brochure to best reflect this model. To influence a positive attitude towards donating to the
Phoenix Society the brochure addresses how the Phoenix Society helps with addiction, and
how people’s donations directly help the Phoenix society (see Figure 2). Then, as mentioned
earlier, statistics on charitable giving are included to create perceived norms around giving to
charity. Finally, to instill a sense of perceived behavioural control, the brochure provides the
website address to donate to the Phoenix Society along with the minimum recommended
amount of money to donate (see Figure 2). These factors allow people to believe they can
donate to the Phoenix society and that this would make a difference. Thus, increasing their
perceived behavioural control on donating. By following this model it is likely that people
will have greater intentions to donate after reading the brochure and would be more likely to
follow through on this behaviour.
In conclusion, the brochure aims to encourage people to donate to the Phoenix Society,
an organization that helps battle addiction in Surrey, BC. To do this, multiple strategies of
persuasion are followed: ELM, guilt appeals, the social norms approach, the social adjustive
attitude function, and the reasoned action approach. The intended audience is people living in
neighbourhoods in the Lower Mainland that are severely impacted by addiction, such as
Newton, Surrey. This would increase involvement in the issue and lead to more effective
persuasion. The brochure was also aimed towards people who are high-self monitors. By
following these strategies and establishing relevant targets, this brochure would be effective at
persuading the audience to donate to the Phoenix Society.

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Figures
Figure 1. Phoenix Society Brochure Page 1

Note. Photos retrieved from Dukhin (2016) and Fauxels (2019).

Figure 2. Phoenix Society Brochure Page 2

Note. Photos retrieved from Altmann (2017), Antoniadis (2020), and Barbhuiya (n.d.).

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