Despite having expertise on the day to day consequences of how individuals and groups are impacted by the policies and decisions of governments, charities have experienced a great deal of tension in their attempts to influence public policy. The CPS-022 Policy Statement that restricts the political activity of charities to 10 percent of their overall budget has been identified as confusing, antiquated, and not in line with the advocacy role that some charities identify as necessary for social change. These tensions were further exacerbated by the political activity audit program which was enacted by the Harper government from 2012-2015. This program caused an advocacy chill that was felt to varying levels by different charities in the sector. The purpose of this research is to explore how the CPS-022 interacts with everyday practice as it pertains to advocacy, gauge whether or not there has been a warming to the advocacy chill, and to collect senior employee’s impressions regarding the proposed recommendations for changes to the CPS-022 collected by a consultation panel. Semi structured qualitative interviews were completed with 6 participants from macro-based social organizations in Ontario. Participants shared their opinions and experiences of audit, governmental control of the social agenda, working within the policy statement, and the panel’s recommendations for change. Using a structural social work lens to analyze the data, it was found that a lack of clarity and a broad scope of interpretation within the CPS-022 made advocacy more daunting, participants were not concerned about exceeding the 10 percent limit, and there has been a variable warming to the advocacy chill. Participants were generally happy with the recommendations laid out by the panel, despite a lack of focus on clarifying partisanship, and the potential for broadness in the legislation. Overall, it became obvious that the charitable sector is in a period of transition and growth with regard to their role in public policy development. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

Abstract   Background:           The environment of the charity sector is changing. The overall sector of licensed charities in the Netherlands grew over the past couple of years, but this trend is not caused by a growth in contributors, as the numbers show a downwards slope. Besides that, research shows that the individual’s willingness to contribute to charity declines. Next to that, it is visible that the needs and wishes of contributors to charity change. This could possibly imply that individuals are willing to engage with charity, but in a different manner. Purpose:                  The way contributors contribute to charitable organisations is evident, but how and why individuals engage is a relatively unexplored area, as previous research mainly focused on the motivations rather than the dimensions of engagement. Therefore, the research purpose of this paper is to investigate the dimensions of engagement of Dutch individuals towards DCS, whilst it adds to the existing body of literature about contributor engagement in the charity sector. Method:                   The study revolved around a positivistic research philosophy, following a sequential mixed-method research design to gather the information and insights needed. A questionnaire was used to obtain the inputs of 333 unique respondents, which was followed up by 10 semi-structured in-depth interviews to enrich the findings. To analyse the data, various techniques, such as factor analysis, correlation and multiple regression, were executed to reveal statistically significant relationships and influences among the variables. Conclusion:             The results show that the five dimensions of volunteer engagement, namely behavioural, emotional, cognitive, spiritual and social, are also applicable when investigating contributor engagement. However, the study has shown that all dimensions apart from the spiritual one have a statistically significant influence on the contributor engagement of Dutch individuals towards DCS. Further findings and a more profound understanding of the motives of interviewees revealed that the deeper motivations to engage or not engage with DCS are in line with national trends visible within the charity sector. The outcomes could contribute to DCS’ and possibly other charitable organisations’ understanding of the altering needs and wishes of contributors and the Dutch society. More specifically, the findings can contribute to the existing knowledge of the dimensions of engagement and could be utilised for marketing purposes to focus on the right areas when developing future strategies.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / 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.

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This dissertation consists of two essays on nonprofit finance. Nonprofit finance concerns obtaining and managing financial resources to support the social purposes of nonprofit organizations. A unique feature of nonprofit finance is that nonprofits derive revenue from a variety of sources. Nonprofit finance thus involves answering two fundamental questions: What is the optimal combination of revenue sources that supports a nonprofit to achieve its mission? Where and how to obtain the revenue sources? The two dissertation essays address these two questions respectively. The first essay, titled “Modern Portfolio Theory and the Optimization of Nonprofit Revenue Mix,” is among the first to properly apply modern portfolio theory (MPT) from corporate finance to nonprofit finance. By analyzing nonprofit tax return data, I estimate the expected return and risk characteristics for five nonprofit revenue sources as well as the correlations among these returns. I use the estimates to identify the efficient frontiers for nonprofits in different industries, based on which nonprofit managers can select an optimal portfolio that can minimize the risk given a preferred level of service provision or maximize the return given a level of risk. The findings also pose a challenge to the predominant approach used in previous nonprofit finance studies (Herfindahl-Hirschman Index) and suggest that MPT is theoretically and practically more helpful in guiding nonprofit revenue management. The second essay, titled “Charitable Giving in Nonprofit Service Associations: Identities, Incentives, and Gender Differences,” concerns nonprofit resource attainment, specifically, how do decisionmaking contexts and framing affect donations. Membership in a service club is characterized by two essential elements: members’ shared interest in the club’s charitable mission; and private benefits that often come as a result of social interactions with other members, such as networking, fellowship, and fun. A laboratory experiment was designed to examine 1) whether membership in a service club makes a person more generous and 2) the effect of service club membership—stressing either the service or socializing aspects—on individual support for collective goods. The study finds that female individuals are the least generous when they are reminded of the socializing aspect of service-club membership.

Past higher education fund-raising studies examining alumni giving across several institutions have had two main limitations. First, the multitude of independent variables used in these studies has made it difficult to determine whether past studies have discovered many different factors that influence levels of alumni gift revenue, or whether they have discovered a few common factors that have been represented by different sets of variables in each study. Second, past studies have failed to adequately describe causal mechanisms through which variables significantly related to gift revenue influence levels of gift revenue. The current study addresses the aforementioned limitations in creating an aggregate model of donor behavior for law school alumni. The study examines alumni giving at 41 ABA-approved law schools. The results indicate that four basic factors account for most (87 percent) of the variance in amounts of alumni annual fund revenue among different law schools. The four factors, listed in order of importance and shown with the variables that load highly on each factor, are the following: Factor l--"Institutional Quality" (variables are average LSAT scores of accepted law students; reputation of law school among professors at other law schools; reputation of law school's graduates among judges and practicing lawyers; average starting salaries of new graduates of the law school; total number of volumes in law library; number of volumes in law library divided by FTE enrollment;). Factor 2--"Institutional Size" (variables are: FTE law school enrollment; number of living law school alumni; number of FTE law faculty; total number of law school advancement staff people). Factor 3--"Relative Advancement Effort" (variables are: number of law school advancement staff people divided by number of living law school alumni; number of law school reunion classes solicited for special gifts each year). Factor 4--"Institutional Age" (variables are: age of law school; age of law school's parent institution). Differences between the factor structures for public and private law schools are examined. The study suggests possible causal mechanisms through which these four factors influence the amount of alumni gift revenue raised by each law school.

Finally, this thesis put forward specific recommendations in relation to social welfare policies, social work practice, organizational capacity building, organizational performance assessment and the future areas for research on philanthropic foundations. / The purpose of this research is to describe and discuss the magnitude of success, use of strategies and extent of public participation in philanthropic foundations under the socialist system of China. It also analyzes how the effectiveness of these philanthropic foundations is related to their selected strategies and their extent of public participation. / The research also found that public participation was an essential value in the philanthropic foundations. Public participation was a tactic to obtain resources, and to realize success in the organization. However, empowerment of the service users had not been given enough attention. Meanwhile, the participants in the philanthropic foundations could be classified as individuals and legal entities, administrative units, public organizations and quasi-governmental organizations. The mode of participation varied from the "one-way model", the "participatory model" and the "decision-making model". Accordingly, four models of participation were identified. / The research found that the successful philanthropic foundations had differing manifestations and weights in variables pertaining to "objectives", "degree of satisfaction", "legitimacy" and "resource input". Whilst the variables were related to each others, the weight for each variable differed in the studied cases. Classified in terms of the weight of the variables, there were four models among the successful philanthropic foundations, namely, the "equilibrium model", the "satisfying model", the "legitimate model" and the "sustainable model". / The research further found that there was correlations among the manifestation of success, strategic orientation, and mode of participation. The case background is related to certain manifestation of success, strategy and mode of public participation, constructing four reaction patterns. These reaction patterns are premised on "organization", "resources", "need", and "government", producing different relationships among "success", "strategy" and "public participation". / The study identified the functional dimension (philanthropic versus charity) and the instrumental dimension (market versus government action), from which five different strategies were derived from the philanthropic foundations studied. They were the "strong market orientation", the "compromising orientation", the "weak market orientation", the "mutuality orientation" and the "governmental orientation". / This research is a case study of 7 legally registered philanthropic foundations supported by non-governmental funds. Twenty senior management staffs working in the 7 philanthropic foundations participated in the in-depth interviews. The samples were selected from various departments under different administrative levels in Mainland China, including the central government level, the provincial level and the municipal level, and taking into account the economic strength of the regions. All the selected cases included philanthropic services for children, and have been operating for more than 5 years. These homogeneous cases are to a certain extent typical cases. / 陳津利. / 呈交日期: 2005年6月. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2005. / 參考文獻(p. 406-426). / Cheng jiao ri qi: 2005 nian 6 yue. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: A, page: 0336. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2005. / Can kao wen xian (p. 406-426). / Chen Jinli.

The exploration of the four key themes of leadership, spirituality, ethics and values and their relationship between and with employers and employees in human service charitable NGOs in Perth, Western Australian, provided the main purpose for the current research. In addition, the purpose included examining the impact of charities operating as if they were for-profit businesses; the impact of faith and secularity on the work of charities; and possible gender differences arising from the themes within this context. The qualitative research was undertaken using hermeneutic phenomenological methodology; however, feminism, post-modernism and narrative practices were used to elicit additional perspectives from the resulting material. The current research used a broad-ranging, multi-disciplinary approach, thus encompassing a literature review of the philosophical, ethical, psychological, theological and anthropological disciplines as it tracked some of the material’s substantial heritage. Additionally, the research focussed on the experience of charitable workplace cultures which provide the context for the delivery of human services, and discussed the current charitable human services paradigm. A total of 46 individuals from 8 different charities participated through in-depth interviews. They included organisational leaders, management and front-line workers who provided collectively and individually a rich mine of material for exploration and discovery from which to unravel the essence of the responses. / The emerging conclusions provide the capacity to view the charitable organisation from a gendered perspective, as female, thus reflecting the profile of the workforce; while also uncovering substantial discrimination and inequity in employment conditions. Leadership styles were gendered, as were the discourses on ethics, values and spirituality. Organisational size was a key factor in determining values and changing perspectives matched more closely, the business paradigm. The faith and secularity of each NGO also presented opportunities to map organisational intention around leadership, spirituality, ethics and values such that further research opportunities have been highlighted across the results.

This report discusses how non-profit organizations can utilize mobile phone technology to reach supporters and inspire them to both act and give. The significance of this report and topic lies in the opportunity for non-profit organizations to understand how people are interacting with messages on their mobile devices. The research found within, serves as a reference for non-profits to utilize when planning and implementing mobile phone marketing campaigns. / text

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The thesis, American Indian Foundations: Philanthropic Change and Adaptation, explores definition of the issues which impelled the development of grantmaking foundations as vehicles for American Indian community development. American Indian foundations are grantmaking foundations by and for American Indians. They frequently incorporate technical support, fiscal sponsorship and management of their own programs in ways which are unique to American Indians. The thesis is based on a case study and analysis of the formation and development of the Seventh Generation Fund for American Indian Development (and its predecessor the Tribal Sovereignty Program of the Youth Project), the first American Indian national public grantmaking foundation. The research design is based on primary source research and a literature review, augmented by a case study, and amplified by in-depth experience in the field of American Indian philanthropy. The literature review encompasses the relevant primary issues of the thesis and also covers an historical philanthropic review of influences on the development and inception of American Indian philanthropy. Original documents relative to these subjects were located in the manuscript and microfilm collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison; the Field Foundation Archives of the Center for American History at the University of Texas, Austin; and the Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archives, and the Joseph and Matthew Payton Philanthropic Studies Library, both located at Indiana University in Indianapolis. The thesis is based on a primary research question and framed by six subsidiary questions. The thesis concluded that perhaps American Indian foundations were formulated to better serve their peoples in the absence of philanthropic attention. In addition they were formed to address underserved philanthropic needs in ways unique to American Indians. As well with regard to the case study, the primary reason for the founding of the first American Indian national grantmaking foundation was to apply the theoretical concepts of sovereignty and self-sufficiency into practicality in Indian country.