This research investigated the effect of potential donor’s self-theory in charity advertising. Prior research shows that the effects of message framing and facial image valence on charitable appeal. However, in the present research we propose that potential donor’s self-theory(incremental theory vs. fixed theory) can influence the intention to donate money and volunteer under different message and image frames. When participants have incremental theory, the sad facial image(vs. happy facial image) elicited more the intention to donate money and time. However, when participants have fixed theory, they considered the congruity between image and message. In this case, our findings suggest that non-profit should consider potential donor’s self-theory, when nonprofit organizations communicate their advertisement to generate donate money and time. This research makes theoretical contribution and implications for non-profit organizations.