Motivating Mormons

Despite numerous studies on motivation for generosity, much remains unknown. Given that the lion's share of giving and volunteering is directed toward religious institutions, we aimed to test the motivation for the generosity of Mormons. Previous research has indicated that Mormons (Latter‐day Saints) volunteer and donate at much higher levels than other groups. This study examined how self‐reported motivations to volunteer explain the annual number of hours volunteered and the likelihood of donating toward various causes. We used thirty qualitative interviews with Latter‐day Saints to create a comprehensive questionnaire measuring the time spent engaged in various volunteer activities and whether or not the respondents donated to various causes. The questionnaire also asked respondents to rank how important twenty‐five different motivations were to their service or volunteering. We used factor analysis of the results on the twenty‐five motivation items to identify underlying variables behind volunteer motivations, and we used the scores on the five resulting factors in multiple regression analyses to predict volunteer hours and logistic regression analyses to predict the likelihood of making donations. Different types of motivations predicted different types of volunteering and charitable giving. Theological motivations had the broadest impact and predicted religious volunteering, social volunteering to benefit church members, social volunteering through the church to benefit the community, religious donations, and donations toward social causes made through the church. After inserting control variables into our models, we found that none of the five types of motivations predicted secular volunteering or secular charitable giving. We conclude with managerial and conceptual implications of these and other results.     

Encounters with Philanthropic Information: Cognitive Dissonance and Implications for the Social Sector

Using interviews with senior level employees in the social sector, I analyze the interactions between organizations and individual potential and existing donors. I recommend a reevaluation of the sector’s use of what I term “agents of philanthropy,” as well as a reconsideration of the hesitation to introduce philanthropic giving to individuals and corporations. To support this assertion, I conduct a thematic content analysis of The New York Times to show how the transference of philanthropic information affects the cognitions and subsequent actions of readers. Using this analysis, I show how individuals may be primed for charitable giving if only these opportunities were presented. The design and focus of this research addresses what I have perceived as oversights in philanthropic research to date: the exclusion of psychology theory, an overemphasis on the conscious, stated motivations of donors, and the lack of interdisciplinary work on prosocial behaviors.     

Conditioning effect of prior reputation on perception of corporate giving

Prior corporate reputation, one responsibility of a public relations department, affects public perceptions toward corporate philanthropic messages and ultimately affects public attitudes toward the company. Using an experiment that emulates the sort of news consumption individuals normally undertake, participants inferred corporate charitable giving as a mutually beneficial activity when a company had a good reputation (H1a). Participants inferred corporate charitable giving as a self-interested activity when the company had a bad reputation (H1b). Also, public inference (suspicion) successfully mediated corporate prior reputation on public attitude toward the company (H2). Participants showed positive attitude toward the company when they inferred the company had an altruistic motive for charitable giving (H3a). However, participants showed negative attitude toward the company when they inferred the company had a self-interested motive for charitable giving (H3b).     

The Effects of Social Trust and Institutional Trust on Formal Volunteering and Charitable Giving in Japan

This study is part of the growing literature on the effects on civic engagement of attitudinal predictors, such as trust, along with structural predictors. Drawing data from the 2005 Japanese General Social Survey, it examines the association between trust and the probabilities of formal volunteering and charitable giving. A bivariate probit analysis of the data suggests that trust, institutional trust in particular, matters more to predict giving than volunteering. Although the number of membership affiliations is positively and significantly associated with both types of civic engagement, the association between membership affiliations and formal volunteering is significantly greater. Implications of these and other findings are discussed for future studies linking trust to civic engagement in group-collectivist societies such as Japan.     

From personal troubles to public compassion: charity shop volunteering as a practice of care

This article analyses charity shop volunteering in the UK as an instance of individual commitment towards organizations devoted to combating suffering. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews focused on motives, the paper argues that some respondents found in volunteer work a way of regaining meaning, structure and belonging after experiences of social dislocation such as retirement and bereavement. The transition from social dislocation to ontological security via volunteering illustrates the way in which ‘the social’ – as expressed in fellowship, laughter, work, organizations and institutions – moderates charitable practice. From this perspective, volunteering appears as a relational, processual and affective practice of care; and as a sympathy catalyst – an institution that facilitates interpersonal sympathy exchanges and support for compassionate goals. The paper endorses a view of human subjectivity which takes seriously both human vulnerability and resilience – victimhood and agency – as well as the relevance of suffering and flourishing for social action. In so doing, the paper sheds light on the link between individual biographies and the institutionalized efforts to alleviate strangers' suffering that Natan Sznaider has termed ‘public compassion’.     

The dependent variable of the independent sector: the definition and measurement of giving and volunteering

This paper addresses three topics to which researchers should turn their attention in regard to the dependent variable of giving and volunteering. The first is to develop an expanded definition of philanthropy revolving around the notion of gift and the relations of exchange and around the theological virtue of charity and the emotional dispositions of care, altruism, and love of neighbour. The second is to attend to measurement problems in regard to operationalising giving and volunteering; obtaining comparable information from givers and non-givers; improving the reliability of the data, including an effort to reduce the amount of missing data; and establishing a consistent unit of analysis. The third direction is to conduct some innovative research activity to obtain better measures and understandings of giving and volunteering, including development of a diary study, closer analysis of the relationship between class and giving, and attention to measuring the social effects or outcomes of philanthropic activity.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Conference on Charitable Statistics sponsored by the New York University School of Law Program on Philanthropy and the Law, Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, Duke University Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism, Washington, D.C., 8 May 1992.     

‘Shopping for Change’: <Emphasis Type="Italic">World Vision Canada</Emphasis> and Consumption-Oriented Philanthropy in the Age of Philanthrocapitalism

According to Charity Intelligence Canada, in 2014, at least 21 Canadian non-profits published a gift catalogue featuring a range of “products”^a that donors could “purchase” for people in need. These charity gift catalogues, along with other shopping-inspired fundraising initiatives, represent a significant shift in the philanthropic arena towards philanthrocapitalism. Using two World Vision Canada campaigns as exemplars, this article offers a critical analysis of what the author calls “consumption-oriented philanthropy”^b—a class of charitable giving that is heavily guided by market principles without involving a consumer product. Unlike purchase-triggered donation campaigns (in which a charitable donation is made when a consumer product is purchased), consumption-oriented philanthropy does not require the purchase of a for-profit commodity; instead, consumption-oriented philanthropy reformulates aid recipients or charitable aid itself into symbolic commodities. By re-framing charitable aid as a pseudo-shopping experience, however, consumption-oriented philanthropy ushers in an entirely different set of values, expectations, and logic that shapes the way in which donors understand and engage in philanthropic giving.     

The Effects of Nonprofit Reputation on Charitable Giving: A Survey Experiment

A nonprofit’s reputation is a crucial intangible asset that can bring significant benefits to the organization. Using a multidimensional framework, this study tested the effects of three dimensions of nonprofit reputation—financial efficiency, media visibility, accreditation status—on charitable giving behavior. The findings of this 2 × 2 × 2 full-factorial survey experiment show that each of the reputation dimensions has a significant individual effect on giving behavior. Furthermore, financial efficiency and accreditation status have an interaction effect on giving behavior. The findings also demonstrate the cross-level interaction between financial efficiency and the real-life giving behavior of individuals and between accreditation and the real-life volunteering behavior. This study provides implications for our understanding of the components of nonprofit reputation and their impact on charitable giving.

     

Creating trust with major donors: The service encounter model

Although the wealthy individuals who create charitable trusts exert considerable influence on the $123 billion of charitable giving, very little is known about this segment. Aside from data about the size of donations and emerging information about their motivations, the philanthropic and marketing literature is largely silent on issues surrounding major philanthropic acts. For example, what aspects of the service encounter catalyze support and create a successful experience? What are the prior constituent, voluntary, and donor behaviors of individuals who create trusts exceeding $1 million? What support is required from nonprofit and external legal and financial advisers? This article provides a model of the trust creation process framed by insights from the services marketing literature, documents the process empirically, and draws out implications for nonprofit resource development.     

Prayer and Charitable Behavior

Abstract

I propose a theoretical framework to understand how prayer influences charitable volunteering and financial giving. Drawing on work from symbolic interaction and cognitive psychology, I argue that individuals’ concepts of divine others become more cognitively accessible during the act of prayer. Because most people attribute the characteristics of omniscience and the desire for humans to help others to divine others, people are more likely to help known and unknown others the more cognitively accessible divine other concepts are to them. This lead to the prediction that frequency of prayer will be positively and linearly association with the frequency of volunteering, frequency of giving money to charity, and amount of money given to charity in a year. Using data from the General Social Survey, I find evidence for my argument. Frequency of prayer is positively and linearly associated with these charitable behaviors, even after controlling for other religiosity and sociodemographic variables.     

Individual Preferences Over Development Projects: Evidence from Microlending on Kiva

Peer-to-peer microfinance connects philanthropic citizens with poor entrepreneurs in the developing world, offering new ways to channel charitable contributions. Although the literature suggests that donors?? perceptions of effectiveness affect charitable giving, very little is known about what types of projects individuals perceive as more effective. Using data from Kiva.org, this article presents evidence on the relative popularity of competing development projects. We present estimates of the impact of publicly visible project characteristics on funding speed. Assuming that Kiva lenders are motivated by poverty alleviation, the results shed light on individual philanthropists?? perception of project effectiveness. Knowing this can help practitioners design fundraising strategies more effectively, especially for projects that are inherently less popular.     

Foundations as investment managers part 1: The process

Foundations in the United States manage more than $130 billion in investment resources. In managing these assets, foundations must balance the competing goals of promoting charitable good deeds through the distribution of grants and stewarding the assets that can support such grants in the future. This paper examines how foundations perform the function of managing their financial assets and whether they follow modern practices of portfolio management in doing so. The data presented here provide reason to suspect that many foundations are giving insufficient attention to preserving and enhancing the available philanthropic resources under their control. Analysis of actual investment performance is the subject of a sequel article in the next issue of Nonprofit Management and Leadership.     

An unseen lens: The relationship between philanthropists’ developmental meaning making and philanthropic activity

To solve complex problems such as poverty, nonprofit leaders must think in increasingly complex ways. Research on philanthropy has not yet explored the complexity of philanthropists’ thinking while making philanthropy‐related decisions. Developmental psychology indicates that adults develop an increasingly complex mental map over the course of a lifetime and that this map emerges as a series of successive stages. This study asked: How, if at all, does this mental map inform philanthropy? This four‐phase mixed‐methods multi‐case study (n = 11) used constructive developmental theory to empirically assess philanthropists’ developmental levels and, then, compare identified levels with data about the donor's philanthropic activities such as donations and board memberships. The contributions of the study are twofold: (a) the findings suggest philanthropists’ developmental levels are related to their thinking processes about charitable giving and the rationales they employ to make decisions about their philanthropic activities (specifically, how they form ideas about the problem and how they engage in empathy), and (b) this study makes a methodological contribution by demonstrating a novel (and apparently useful) approach to researching philanthropic giving. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Generous or Greedy Marriage? A Longitudinal Study of Volunteering and Charitable Giving

Recent scholarship has explored whether marriage encourages individuals to contribute to or withdraw from society. The authors examined how marriage affects volunteering and charitable giving, using longitudinal data from the 2001 to 2009 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Newly married men, but not women, were significantly more likely to give money to charity in the first survey wave after marriage and gave larger amounts of money. Newly married women, but not men, were significantly less likely to volunteer after marriage and volunteered fewer hours. Marriage had a stronger effect on religious giving than overall giving among men and had a significant and positive effect on religious giving among women. Marriage had a stronger positive effect on men's giving in the second wave after marriage than after the first.     

Women's strategies in Dutch philanthropy

Dutch women have historically been philanthropists, with an emphasis on the giving of time. This article describes several strategies in which Dutch women have used philanthropy in different periods of time and in different social situations to widen their scope of action for themselves. The giving of time was partly related to the burgher ideal of domestic family culture, in which women were not supposed to join the labour force but instead become caring mothers and spick-and-span housewives. Another factor was the relative prosperity of the nation: the income of the male breadwinner was enough to support the whole household. To maintain social contacts and to gain prestige without abrogating social, religious and community norms, married women turned to philanthropic and volunteer organisations, especially in social services, welfare and health care. Many of them found a life-time occupation in volunteering. They created a parallel power structure in the public sphere. More recently, giving of time has become a means of gaining work experience. Volunteering has become an instrument to accomplish women's liberation, by building women's organisations, and interest and self-help groups.     

Vying for the Urban Poor: Charitable Organizations, Faith-Based Social Capital, and Racial Reconciliation in a Deep South City

In this article the mobilization of social capital is examined as it relates to the formation of collaborative partnerships among charitable organizations. It is argued that social capital, expressed through social ties and mutual trust, forms the foundation for such partnerships. Specifically, collaborative activities built upon religiously based social capital mobilized among charitable organizations are focused upon in this study. The extensive role of such social capital, combined with the historical context of the research setting, overshadows alternative forms of social capital that might be accessed for neighborhood revitalization, particularly social capital based on race. Consequently, this article's findings suggest that a color-blind approach to racial reconciliation has emerged among charitable organizations in conjunction with the hegemonic role of religiously based social capital in this local context. The unique nature of this outcome is significant because it emphasizes the impact of local context on the manner in which social capital is mobilized within localized networks.     

Effects of Motivation on Charitable Giving Practices: The Case of Korean American Immigrants

This study empirically evaluates the effects of motivation for philanthropic giving on distinct charitable practices of immigrants, namely ethnic donation versus mainstream donation. The study pays special attention to three major types of motives: rational motives, normative motives, and civic duty. Based on the Korean-American Philanthropic Survey, the study constructs a bivariate probit regression model to assess the relationship between motivation and charitable practices. South Korean immigrants’ ethnic donation and their mainstream donation were explained by different types of motives: Normative motives represented the primary explanatory factor for ethnic donation, and civic duty motives represented the key factor for mainstream donation. However, rational motives were related to neither form of donation. There was a negative relationship between mainstream donation and ethnic donation.

     

Generosity vs. Altruism: Philanthropy and Charity in the United States and United Kingdom

This paper presents a comparative analysis of giving ethos and behavior in the United States and the United Kingdom, in particular the relationship of giving to civic life. Obvious disparities between the two countries exist when overall levels of giving are considered. In the United States, individual giving as a percentage of gross national or domestic product has consistently hovered around 2% of Gross Domestic Product. By contrast, charitable giving in the United Kingdom has yet to reach 1% of GDP. The paper identifies the differences in giving ethos and behavior in the two countries in relation to the complexity of the differences between the political structures, social attitudes, and the role of charitable giving in the two countries. In particular, the paper postulates a set of models—generosity and altruism—for explaining the differences.     

The Family Tribute in Charitable Bequest Giving

The propensity for charitable bequest giving is much lower than for current charitable giving. Some nonexperimental evidence suggests that this difference may be due to the relatively greater importance of family benefit considerations in charitable bequest giving than in current charitable giving. To test this concept experimentally, the effects of a family–charity conflict reduction message (that is, a reminder of family connections to a cause and an opportunity to make a tribute gift) are measured for both current and bequest giving. For those with family connections to a cause, the message generated increased interest in charitable bequest giving but not in current charitable giving. This result provides experimental support for previous suggestions regarding the special role of family considerations in charitable bequest giving. Managers may profitably consider the use of tribute messages to encourage bequest, but not necessarily current, charitable giving. Such messages were effective at increasing bequest intentions for all organization types and demographic groups tested, especially where the tribute was in honor of an ascendant such as a mother, grandmother, grandfather, or uncle.     

Charity,Volunteering Type and Subjective Wellbeing

We examine the impact of volunteering and charitable donations on subjective wellbeing. We further consider if the model of the volunteering work (formal vs. informal) and the geographical location of the charity organisation (local vs. international) people donate to has any impact on subjective wellbeing. Using UK’s Community Life Survey data, we find that volunteering and engagement in charity are positively associated with subjective wellbeing, measured by individual life satisfaction. We show that while there is a positive effect of volunteering and charity on life satisfaction, the level of utility gained depends on the type of charity or volunteering organisation engaged with (i.e. local or international). Specifically, donating to local (neighbourhood) charities as opposed to international/national charities is associated with higher wellbeing. Similarly, engaging in informal volunteering, compared to formal volunteering, is associated with higher wellbeing. To explain our results, we use the construal-level theory of psychological distance, which suggests that people think more concretely of actions and objects that they find spatially and socially close.