Browsing by Author "Mesch, Debra J."

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Charitable Giving in Married Couples: Untangling the Effects of Education and Income on Spouses’ Giving
    (Sage, 2022) Mesch, Debra J.; Osili, Una Okonkwo; Dale, Elizabeth J.; Ackerman, Jacqueline; Bergdoll, Jon; O’Connor, Heather A.; Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
    This research note looks beyond the unitary household model and analyzes the influence of household resources by gender on charitable giving. We investigate the intrahousehold variables of income and education and their effects on giving behaviors in married couples. We use data from the longitudinal Philanthropy Panel Study (2005–2017) to examine how spouses’ income and educational differences affect charitable giving behaviors and introduce fixed effects to control for unobserved heterogeneity. Initially, we find a positive relationship between both the husband’s and wife’s earned and unearned incomes and the likelihood and amount of giving by married couples. However, when fixed effects are used, we find women’s earned income to be significantly associated with all forms of giving, showing that women’s labor market earnings disproportionately influence giving behavior. Education is less of a factor in whether couples give and influences giving only when the husband has more education than the wife.
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    DOES JEWISH PHILANTHROPY DIFFER BY SEX AND TYPE OF GIVING?
    (2010) Mesch, Debra J.; Moore, Zach; Ottoni-Wilhelm, Mark
    Little has been written on the role of gender in Jewish philanthropy, and there is even less empirical research on gender differences between Jewish men and women, or between Jews and non-Jews by gender. This study examines Jewish philanthropy by type of giving and gender. Spe-cifically, we examine the differing amounts given to charity (both reli-gious and secular) across eight groups, controlling for other factors that may affect philanthropic giving. These included four groups of married couples: those consisting of two Jewish spouses, of a Jewish man and a non-Jewish woman, of a non-Jewish man and a Jewish woman, and of two non-Jewish spouses; and four groups of singles: Jewish men, Jewish women, non-Jewish men and non-Jewish women. Using three waves of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we used regres-sion methods to examine the differences among the groups. Results indicated that the probability of giving and the amount given among Jewish women married to non-Jewish men are significantly less than among all other groups.
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    Giving among same-sex couples: the role of identity, motivations, and charitable decision-making in philanthropic engagement
    (2016-05-06) Dale, Elizabeth Jane; Mesch, Debra J.; Benjamin, Lehn M.; Burlingame, Dwight F.; Robertson, Nancy Marie
    This study investigates the philanthropic practices of same-sex couples, including their motivations for giving and how they make philanthropic decisions. Existing research has focused almost exclusively on heterosexual couples and assumes that all households are the same. Using the frameworks of the eight mechanisms of giving and social identification theory, this study investigates the role of identity in philanthropic behavior and how gender differences may be amplified among same-sex couples. Drawing on 19 semi-structured joint interviews with gay and lesbian couples in Indiana, the research uses a qualitative method to "give voice" to a marginalized population's philanthropic experiences that are little studied. The study finds participants are highly engaged in nonprofit organizations and participate in a diverse array of philanthropic behaviors. While many couples support at least one LGBT-affiliated nonprofit, giving to LGBT causes does not constitute the majority of most couples' philanthropy. Still, sexual orientation plays a significant role in motivating support for the LGBT community, for public policy changes and equal rights initiatives, and to HIV/AIDS-service organizations. Sexual orientation also determines which organizations many donors would not support. Same-sex couples also use their philanthropy as a way to support their communities at-large and be recognized by mainstream society. In terms of financial management, a majority of participant couples maintained independent financial accounts or partial pooling systems of household income, leading to more opportunities for charitable giving; at the same time, couples expressed low conflict over making giving decisions and supported one another's interests. This study provides scholars and practitioners insights into the complex interactions of motivations, identity, and financial arrangements that underscore charitable giving, and it offers implications for nonprofit organizations and fundraisers who work with diverse populations of donors.
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    Giving Voice beyond Her Vote: How Women Used Charitable Giving to Create Social Change after the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
    (De Gruyter, 2020-07) Mesch, Debra J.; Osili, Una O.; Bergdoll, Jonathan J.; Skidmore, Tessa B.; Ackerman, Jacqueline E.; Han, Xiao; Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
    This study fills a gap in research on the philanthropic outcomes of political events. More specifically, it provides empirical evidence to supplement anecdotal reports that nonprofit organizations experienced a substantial increase in donations following the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Based on daily transaction data from an online giving platform, the study uses random-effect panel Ordinary Least Squares models to examine whether and how charitable giving patterns changed after Election Day 2016. Overall, our analyses show no evidence of increased giving due to the election; however, gender differences are apparent. Women donated in greater amounts than men following Election Day, and they appear to have targeted relevant progressive charities with their giving.
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    Limited leadership: an examination of Houston nonprofit board diversity and whether selection processes and executive director perceptions of governance models affect composition
    (2016-02-03) Seaworth, Angela D.; Cochran, Philip L.; Benjamin, Lehn; Mesch, Debra J.; Witkowski, Gregory R.
    Nonprofit governing board diversity recently gained attention from scholars, and the changing demographics of the United States' population create urgency around understanding how to diversify nonprofit boards. This study examined nonprofit board diversity in the largest majority-minority city in the United States -- Houston, Texas -- which was also declared the most diverse city in the country in the 2010 Census. GuideStar was used to identify nonprofit organizations in the Houston metropolitan area with annual revenue of $250,000+ and were contactable. 712 executive directors were surveyed electronically; there was a 26% response rate yielding responses from 185 nonprofit organizations. The survey was designed in three sections to study board composition, board processes and whether or not the executive director's perception of the governance model would influence the diversity ratio on an organization's board, and the analyses correspond with those three sections. The study found Houston's nonprofit boards are 9% more diverse than the national average and that Caucasians continue to be overrepresented in governing roles. Other composition findings were that the diversity ratio for board members under 35 years old is beginning to mirror the Houston population and that there was statistical significance between board members being 65 years+ and a lower diversity ratio on the board; however, there was no evidence that suggested nonprofit boards are more diverse in diverse communities. The study identified a gender gap in executive committee service, with a mode of one female serving on these committees despite that fact women make up 46% of all nonprofit board members. No relationship was found between diversity ratios and board procedures or the executive director's perception of the organization's governance model. Other findings were that Houston boards use executive committees at twice the rate of the national average, and that there is direct contradiction between the perceived value of diversity and what characteristics are considered important when recruiting board members. This study ruled out simple solutions for increasing board diversity through board procedures, and it identified areas for future research regarding governance models, the alignment of recruiting characteristics with board diversity and gender equality in leadership.
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    Managing a Civil Society Organization in Democratic Crisis
    (2020-11) Kilicalp Iaconantonio, Sevinc Sevda; Benjamin, Lehn M.; Mesch, Debra J.; Herrold, Catherine E.; Baggetta, Matthew
    This study investigated how civil society organizations (CSOs) adapted to shifts in their external environment that threatened their survival. Specifically, the study considered how CSOs in Turkey were responding to growing authoritarianism and citizens’ demands for a voice and openness. Moreover, the study sought to explain why organizational responses varied across organizations operating in the same field and the challenges CSO leaders confronted as they implemented changes in response to this environment. These pressures, both authoritarian regimes and citizens’ demands for a voice in these organizations, reflect the democratic crisis in many countries and the overall distrust in institutions. In this respect, considering the consequences of both of these pressures for the legitimacy of CSOs simultaneously is both timely and necessary. This study blended theoretical insights from neo-institutional theory and resource dependency theory as well as strategic management literature and civil society literature to fill this theoretical gap. I argue that competing external pressures created conflicting logics by providing different stipulations about how CSOs had to be managed and that CSOs developed differentiated strategies by adopting some features of each logic. I grouped these responses into two main categories: survival and mission-related responses. I demonstrated that competing institutional logics pass through the organizational field and then they are filtered by the following organizational attributes: organizational form, stance toward government, risk tolerance and organizational capacity. Tensions and paradoxical situations resulting from selected practices created various management challenges for CSO leaders. These findings offer new perspectives to the literature on civil society under authoritarian regimes by pointing out the link between outside threats confronting CSOs and significant organizational management issues, thus illustrating how political regimes constrain CSOs’ capacity to contribute to democratic processes and perform internal democracy through soft and hard repression tools.