Books, Reports and Articles - 1997
center on wealth and philanthropy
"Comparisons Between Gallup / IS and Boston Area Diary Study Data: Report of Findings."
John J. Havens and Paul G. Schervish. Social Welfare Research Institute. Boston College, Mar. 31, 1997.
This report documents the results of comparisons between data on giving, volunteering, and income collected by the Gallup Organization for the Independent Sector and corresponding data for the same respondents collected by the "Boston Area Diary Study" (BADS). In general we find that there are major differences between amounts of time volunteered, money and goods contributed, and family income reported to Gallup as compared with the same information reported to "BADS" by the same respondents.
"Inclination, Obligation, and Association: What We Know and What We Need to Learn about Donor Motivation."
Paul G. Schervish. In Critical Issues in Fund Raising, edited by Dwight F. Burlingame. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997. 110-138.
This paper reviews the status of questions surrounding the issue of motivation for charitable gifts of money and assets--what I will call financial philanthropy. In exploring the mobilizing factors that induce financial philanthropy, it is important to distinguish between those influences that lead people to become givers in the first place and those that lead some donors to make larger than average gifts or to increase their giving. The guiding principle of my approach to charitable giving is represented by what I call an identification model rather than an altruism model of motivation.
"Major Donors, Major Motives: The People and Purposes Behind Major Gifts."
Paul G. Schervish. In New Directions for Philanthropic Fundraising: Developing Major Gifts, edited by Dwight F. Burlingame and James M. Hodge. 16 (Summer 1997): 85-112.In this paper I attempt to explain what motivates the charitable giving of the wealthy, or more succinctly, the major motives of major donors. My research over the past twelve years has enabled me to distill an answer that is both simple and complex. The simple part is that what motivates the wealthy is very much what motivates someone at any point along the economic spectrum. The complex part about the charitable motivation of the wealthy is that those who hold great wealth and consciously direct it to social purposes invariably want to shape rather than merely support a charitable cause.
"Our Daily Bread: Findings from the First Diary Study on Giving and Receiving Care."
John J. Havens and Paul G. Schervish. July 1997.
Research report on the findings from interviews three to four times a month for a year with Boston area residents concerning their patterns of giving and receiving financial and in-kind assistance, volunteer time, and emotional support.
"Social Participation and Charitable Giving: A Multivariate Analysis." Paul G. Schervish and John J. Havens. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 8, no. 3 (1997): 235-260.
This paper develops and empirically tests a causal model of the determinants of individual charitable giving. Although our analysis is in reference to charitable giving, the model also appears directly applicable, at least as a starting point, for research on volunteering. This paper reports on the researchers' continuing efforts to develop and test a multivariate causal model of the social, demographic, economic, and motivational determinants of individual charitable giving.