This dissertation studies the history of philanthropy in the San Francisco Bay Area between the 1940s to the 2010s through the experiences of the foundation managers, professors, and attorneys, who collectively oversaw the distribution of philanthropic wealth for the region’s donors. This dissertation argues that foundation managers and a range of other non-donor professionals were critical to the formation of organized philanthropy in the San Francisco Bay Area since the 1940s, which in limited but vital ways redistributed wealth to organizations that provided social welfare services. In the austere decades of the late 20th century, however, philanthropic intermediaries created new models of giving that, in appealing to affluent people, narrowed the purpose and reach of foundations, while expanding the ability of donors to set conditions on their giving. In tandem with larger political and economic changes, the disruption of philanthropy in the San Francisco Bay Area—the creation of donor-centric modes of giving that appealed to the norms of high-tech and financial moguls—helped produce a local nonprofit sector more reflective of the interests of wealthy donors rather than those in need.

Muslim Charitable Clinics are free healthcare clinics that provide healthcare services to uninsured patients of all faiths, free of charge, and publicly identify as Muslim. This study seeks to better understand Muslim Charitable Clinics’ potential to provide vital healthcare services to communities in need while promoting mutual understanding between Muslim and Non-Muslim Americans. The data consists of a case study of one Muslim Charitable Clinic in Longwood, Florida, the American Muslim Community Clinic, and a national survey of Muslim Charitable Clinics. The American Muslim Community Clinic operates a uniquely flexible model with profound benefits for underserved residents in the surrounding Longwood community. The study will explore how the clinic's Muslim identity may also help promote mutual understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim Americans by providing the Muslim American community with positive exposure and visibility. Comparing the findings from this case study to data reported in a national survey of Muslim Charitable Clinics, this thesis finds that the American Muslim Community Clinic was in many respects representative of many other Muslim Clinics across the country, as the survey demonstrates.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study investigated choices made by fundraisers when crafting appeals to unknown potential donors. Specifically, it asked if and how fundraisers’ choices vary depending on whether they were raising money for a population that faced societal stigma. Research on fundraising often focuses on donor behavior, without considering the type of the beneficiary and the discretionary decisions made by fundraisers. This study drew on literature about stigma and literature about fundraising communication. It employed mixed methodologies to explore this research question. The first part of the study used an online experimental survey, in which 76 practicing fundraisers wrote an acquisition appeal letter for a nonprofit after random assignment to benefit either clients with mental illness (stigmatized population) or older adults (non-stigmatized population), then answered attitudinal questions about the beneficiary population. Participants believed individuals with mental illness were more stigmatized than older adults. Analysis of the letters using linguistic software showed that fundraisers used more humanizing language when writing about the non-stigmatized population, compared to the stigmatized population. Several aspects of the appeal letters, identified through existing theory, were examined but did not vary at statistically significant levels between the groups. Exploratory factor analysis showed several patterns of elements recurring within the letters. One of these patterns, addressing social expectations, varied significantly by client group. In the second part of the study, semi-structured interviews with fifteen participants showed that writing for the stigmatized client population raised special concerns in communicating with potential donors: many interviewees described identifying client stories and evidence to justify helping stigmatized clients in a way that wasn’t thought as necessary for non-stigmatized clients. They also attempted to mitigate threatening stereotypes to maintain readers’ comfort levels. Fundraisers regularly evaluated how readers were likely to think of different kinds of clients. Fundraisers’ own implicit assumptions also came into play.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This 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.

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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Rising 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.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経営科学) / 甲第24769号 / 経営博第24号 / 新制||経営||5(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院経営管理教育部経営科学専攻 / (主査)准教授 HAN Hyun Jeong, 教授 原 良憲, 教授 山田 仁一郎, 教授 若林 靖永 (佛教大学) / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy in Management Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

Tax credits are very popular and the support for them is very high, but do they actually succeed in having their intended effect? In this thesis I explore if the Swedish tax credit on charitable giving, which was in effect between the years 2012 and 2015, influenced charitable giving. The Swedish tax credit meant that you could deduct 25% of the amount donated if the organization was approved by the Swedish Tax Agency. This is done using a difference-in- difference method, comparing donations to the organizations which got approved by the Swedish Tax Agency and the organizations which did not. I find no evidence that the tax credit on charitable giving influenced charitable giving in Sweden, but because of the large confidence interval it is difficult to interpret the actual size of the tax credit. The tax credit could have an effect on charitable giving, but this thesis could not find it.

This dissertation develops models of charitable giving in the presence of uncertainty. The model of chapter 2 studies a two-stage signaling game of charitable donations with two players: a charity manager and a wealthy donor. A representative charity manager, who is perfectly informed, collects a donation from a representative donor, who has imperfect information about the manager's types. The manager uses the donation to produce a public good, and in the process decides whether to create waste in order to obtain a personal gain. I solve for separating and pooling sequential equilibria of the game, and employ the Intuitive Criterion of Cho & Kreps (1987) as a refinement to deal with the problem of multiple equilibria. I find that there exists no fully separating equilibrium in which the donor can discern all possible manager types. In addition, the results suggest that the amount of the initial donation may help the donor to induce the manager to reveal his true type. In chapter 3, I analyze the effect of competitive pressures in the philanthropic sector. I find evidence in support of market systems acting as a disciplining device, which induces the manager to play strategies that increase social welfare. Chapter 4 uses an alternative to expected utility theory, known as Choquet expected utility, to model the interaction between a wealthy donor and a charity manager in the presence of uncertainty. / Economics