Browsing by Subject "Charitable giving"
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Item Can too much similarity to self backfire? The effects of different levels of similarity on charitable donations(2018-02-22) Tian, Yuan; Konrath, Sara; Tempel, Gene; Ottoni-Wilhelm, Mark; Mesch, DebraHow is charitable giving influenced by other donors’ charitable giving? Do people give more in the presence of other donors who are similar to themselves? Most research suggests that individuals are positively influenced by others who are similar across a variety of behaviors. In the charitable giving contexts, people are more likely to donate (or donate more) to the same cause if others who are similar donate. Yet, prior research has paid little attention to potential non-linear effects of similarity on charitable giving. Is there a certain amount of similarity that is too much? My dissertation investigates this research question through two different methodological approaches, a systematic literature review and an experimental study. The findings suggest the curvilinear effects of similarity on charitable giving (i.e. self-other oversimilarity hypothesis); that is, individuals are more likely to donate (and donate more) in the presence of other generous donors who are moderately similar to themselves. Yet, individuals are less likely to donate (and donate) less in the presence of other generous donors who are in high similarity to themselves. In other words, too much similarity between donors may actually backfire in charitable giving contexts when others give generously. This dissertation consists of a brief overview of similarity (Chapter 1), a systematic literature review (Chapter 2), an experimental study (Chapter 3) and a research proposal (Chapter 4). Chapter 1 in this dissertation identifies the importance of similarity in social relationships. Chapter 2 investigates the effects of similarity on charitable giving and identifies the literature gap. Chapter 3 attempts to fill the gap via developing and testing self-other oversimilarity hypothesis. It further offers practical implications for nonprofit fundraising practices on how to apply similarity between donors to motivate more funding. In order to provide additional empirical evidence that may contribute to theory and practice, and to address certain limitations of the current experimental study, Chapter 4 proposes a new research project to further test self-other oversimilarity hypothesis in the presence of a stingy donor.Item 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 PhilanthropyThis 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.Item Defining and Estimating the Scope of U.S. Faith-Based International Humanitarian Aid Organizations(Springer, 2022-02) Austin, Thad S.; King, David P.; Bergdoll, Jon; Fulton, Brad R.; Lilly Family School of PhilanthropyThis study illuminates the size, scope, and impact of U.S. faith-based nonprofits in the international affairs sector. Through analysis of IRS microdata, we estimate the prevalence, total revenue, and direct charitable giving to Organizations with Religious Expression (OREs) within the International Affairs subsector (n = 262). Our study provides new language to categorize religiously identified organizations and seeks to demonstrate the distinctive identities and activities of OREs in contrast to organizations with no known religious expression. We find that OREs constitute more than half of the organizations in the sector and estimate that between a third and almost half of all donations to the international affairs subsector go to OREs. In contrast to organizations with no known religious expression, OREs also receive a much greater share of annual revenue from direct support.Item Economic Inequality and Prosocial Behavior: A Multidimensional Analysis(2022-06) Yang, Yongzheng; Wiepking, Pamala; Badertscher, Katherine; Konrath, Sara; Ottoni-Wilhelm, Mark; Rooney, PatrickRising economic inequality has become a widespread trend and concern in recent decades. Economic inequality is often associated with pernicious consequences such as a decrease in individual health and social cohesion and an increase in political conflicts. Does economic inequality have a negative association with prosocial behavior, like many other aspects of inequality? To answer this question, this dissertation investigates the relationship between economic inequality and prosocial behavior, particularly charitable giving, by conducting three empirical studies. The first study is a meta-analysis on the overall relationship between economic inequality and prosocial behavior. Results from 192 effect sizes in 100 studies show that there is a general small, negative relationship between economic inequality and different forms of prosocial behavior. Moderator tests demonstrate that social context, the operationalization of prosocial behavior, the operationalization of economic inequality, and average age of participants significantly moderate the relationship between economic inequality and prosocial behavior. The second study differentiates between redistributive and non-redistributive charitable causes and examines how income inequality is associated with charitable giving to these two causes in China. Using synthesized data from the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS) and official data, this study shows that income inequality has no significant relationship with charitable giving to redistributive causes, but it has a negative association with charitable giving to non-redistributive causes. Of the four moderators, only education significantly moderates the relationship between income inequality and redistributive giving. The third study tests whether and how government social spending mediates the relationship between income inequality and charitable giving. Using the US county level panel data, this study finds there is no significant relationship between income inequality and government social spending as well as between government social spending and charitable giving. Thus, government social spending does not significantly mediate the relationship between income inequality and charitable giving. However, income inequality has a robustly and significantly negative relationship with charitable giving. In sum, this dissertation furthers our understanding of the relationship between economic inequality and prosocial behavior, especially charitable giving. Given the higher economic inequality facing many countries, it is a timely dissertation and has important practical implications.Item The Effects of Social Information, Social Norms and Social Identity on Giving(2008-06-09T19:41:30Z) Shang, Yue; Sargeant, Adrian; Burlingame, Dwight F.; Gunderman, Richard; Lenkowsky, LeslieThis philanthropic studies thesis aims to “increase the understanding of philanthropy, improve its practice, and enhance philanthropic participation” (Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University Overview) by studying the effects of social information, social norms and social identity on giving. It connects philanthropic studies research with theoretical developments in motivations for giving in economics, nonprofit management, nonprofit marketing, consumer behavior, and social psychology. It utilizes personal observations as well as quantitative methods including experiments and surveys on multiple samples including donors, undergraduate students and samples of the U.S. population. It generates actionable and efficacious knowledge to improve the practice of philanthropy. It contributes to the formation and growth of the young field called philanthropic studies - in theory, in methodology and in practice. This thesis includes five chapters. Chapter I will explain how the research question, philosophy and methodology are selected. This discussion will be for the entire thesis. Specific research questions, hypotheses, research designs, findings and implications will be explained in the subsequent chapters. Chapter II demonstrates the immediate and long-term effects of social information on donations and its boundary conditions in existing nonprofit donors in two field experiments. Chapter III shows that the psychological mechanism through which social information influences subsequent giving is perceived descriptive social norms in one field survey of donors and one laboratory experiment on undergraduate students. Chapter IV investigates how social identity congruency moderates the effect of social information on donations. It reports three field experiments on donors and samples of the general U.S. population and two laboratory experiments on undergraduate students. It shows that donors give more money to a public radio station if told that a previous donor with a similar identity also made a large contribution. This effect is more likely to occur when donors have high collective identity esteem and when attention is focused on others. Each chapter provides original fundraising techniques developed from these studies. Chapter V concludes with a discussion of the theoretical, methodological and practical contributions of this thesis and suggests directions for future research in philanthropic studies, and philanthropic psychology in particular.Item Health Related Philanthropy: The Donation of the Body (And Parts Thereof)(2006-09-05T14:59:22Z) Indiana University Center for Bioethics, Health Related Philanthropy Study GroupThe academic study of philanthropy has focused on private action for the public good, and on the area of various determinants of giving. Yet one very obvious act of giving in the health field has been largely neglected in philanthropic studies; the literal donation of self: blood, tissue, DNA, organs and bodies. There is a long tradition in bioethics research involving the ethical, legal and policy issues associated with donation, including factors involving the donation of bodies and their parts whether for transplantation, treatment, research, or education. This report describes the main outcomes of the Study Group, specifically the results of a national telephone survey conducted on our behalf by the IUPUI Public Opinion Lab; and the publications, scholarly presentations, and related outreach efforts in the media and elsewhere.Item Impure Impact Giving: Theory and Evidence(National Bureau of Economic Research, 2018) Hungerman, Daniel M.; Ottoni-Wilhelm, Mark; Economics, School of Liberal ArtsWe present a new model of charitable giving where individuals regard out-of-pocket donations and the matches they induce as different. We show that match-price elasticities combine conventional price effects with the strength of warm glow, so that a match-price elasticity alone is insufficient to characterize preferences for giving. Match- and rebate-price elasticities will be different, but together they lead to new tests of underlying giving preferences. We estimate, for the first time, a match-price elasticity in a high-stakes setting together with a rebate elasticity induced by tax policy. The estimates reject extant models of giving but are consistent with the new theory.Item Is “Overhead” A Tainted Word? A Survey Experiment Exploring Framing Effects of Nonprofit Overhead on Donor Decision(Sage, 2021) Qu, Heng; Daniel, Jamie Levine; School of Public and Environmental AffairsNonprofit overhead ratios (i.e., proportion of funds spent on fundraising and/or management) have long been used as a proxy for nonprofit efficiency. Prior studies find that donors negatively respond to charities with higher overhead. Using a survey experiment, we explore whether providing different types of information about overhead alleviates this donor aversion. When asked to choose between two organizations as donation recipients, donors preferred the organization with lower overhead. However, when presented with information that described the purpose of higher overhead as building long-term organizational capacity, an increased proportion of donors chose to give to the organization with higher overhead. Omitting the word “overhead” further increased the proportion of donors choosing the organization with higher overhead. This study adds to our understanding of overhead aversion and has practical implications for nonprofits that rely on voluntary private contributions to achieve their missions.Item Persistence and change in donations received by America's largest charities(2016-06-07) Cleveland, William Suhs; Lenkowsky, Leslie; Grønbjerg, Kirsten; Lyons, Alvin; Rooney, PatrickThis dissertation explores growth among American charities by examining 25 years of the Philanthropy 400, an annual ranking published by The Chronicle of Philanthropy of the 400 charities receiving the most donations. Data preparation for the Philanthropy 400’s first analysis remedied publication deadline constraints by aligning data by fiscal years and adding 310 charities omitted from the published rankings, resulting in a study population of 1,101 charities. Most studies of charity finance examine individual Forms 990. The Philanthropy 400 uses consolidated financial information from entire organizational networks, creating the same basis for charities filing a single Form 990, like the American Red Cross, and charities with affiliates filing more than 1,000 Forms 990, like Habitat for Humanity. Organizational ecology theory frames examination of aggregate changes in the Philanthropy 400. Two questions examine how age and dependence on donations as a percentage of total income affect persistence in the rankings. A third question examines the changing share of total U.S. giving received by ranked charities. Despite stability resulting from the same charities occupying 189 of the 400 ranking positions every year, the median age of ranked charities decreased. Younger charities generally climbed within the rankings, while older charities tended to decline or exit the rankings. Younger new entrants often persisted in the rankings, suggesting some donors embrace various new causes or solutions. Charities ranked only once or twice decreased in number with each successive ranking. Most charities ranked only once entered the rankings by receiving two or more times their typical amount of donations, suggesting that sustained fundraising programs regularly outperform charities that periodically experience years of extraordinarily high donations. The aggregate inflation-adjusted donations received by the Philanthropy 400 increased during the study period and increased as a percentage of total U.S. giving. As predicted by organizational ecology, the increasing percentage of total U.S. giving received by the Philanthropy 400 coincided with slowing growth in both the number of U.S. charities and total U.S. giving. If the Philanthropy 400 continues to increase its percentage of total U.S. giving, this could affect financing for smaller charities.Item Reading Between the Lines: Social Contextual Influences on the Production of and Response to Charitable Appeals(2021-07) O'Connor, Heather Ann; Konrath, Sara; Shaker, Genevieve; Benjamin, Lehn; Haberski, RaymondThis two-article, mixed-methods dissertation examines social contextual influences on donor and fundraiser behavior. It presents an extension of the Charitable Triad Model to conceptualize philanthropic behavior as a contextualized act informed by the social context shared among and between fundraisers, donors, beneficiaries, and organizations. The first article extends research on how social identity shapes donor behavior. This work finds that people are more likely to donate when they share identities, experiences, or group affiliations with beneficiaries. However, donors make philanthropic decisions in the context of multiple—and sometimes incongruent—identities. How might this complexity affect philanthropic behavior? I apply an intersectional approach to consider donors holding two simultaneous yet seemingly incongruent social identities. Using interviews analyzed with grounded theory, I examine the philanthropic journey of twenty Catholic women who donate to pro-choice organizations and identify as pro-choice activists. I uncover a common process shared by the donors as they navigate their seemingly incompatible identities. Findings reveal implications for fundraisers seeking to understand donors and for organizations that address controversial causes. The second article uses an experimental design with professional fundraisers to test how the presence of a teammate affects the performance of a common fundraising task, that of writing a charitable appeal letter. A large body of research in non-fundraising domains finds that working in a team versus alone can positively affect performance and team members’ satisfaction. Further, new research finds that fundraisers who feel like they fit with their environment have higher satisfaction and retention. However, no known research has examined the role of the social environment in fundraisers’ crafting of charitable appeals. Using person-environment-fit theory, we randomly assign fundraisers to work in a team versus alone to examine how this affects their satisfaction with the task, as well as the content of the letter produced. Results suggest implications for the management of development teams. Overall, this dissertation provides evidence-based insights to improve fundraising practice.