THE OTHER EXCHANGE - PUBLIC-INTEREST GROUPS, PATRONS, AND BENEFITS

Objective. Though it is now widely accepted that public interest group s often rely upon outside sources of support for much of their income, political scientists have largely ignored the group-patron exchange. This exploratory study asks: What do public interest groups ''sell'' t heir patron supporters? Methods. The data utilized here were gathered in extensive interviews with 62 public interest group development pers onnel. Respondents were asked to explain what benefits they offered th eir patron supporters. Results. The findings indicate that different t ypes of patrons seek different types of benefits. For example, private foundations value purposive benefits, while corporate and government patrons appear to value material benefits most. Large individual donor s appear to value a wide variety of benefits. The data also indicate t hat patrons use their substantial resources thoroughly to investigate the costs and benefits of each potential exchange. Finally, some evide nce is obtained to support Rothenberg's (1993) theory of experiential search: both individual and institutional patrons appear to ''learn'' about the groups they support and base retention decisions partially o n what they have learned. Conclusions. For institutional patrons, patt erns of benefit-seeking behavior appear primarily to be a function of legal rules which govern institutional behavior. Individual patrons ar e often purposively motivated, but also expect other types of benefits .