Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen S. Myers-Bowman / Is there a positive relationship between doing good and feeling well? Does demonstrating behavior that is charitable in nature lead to a greater sense of well-being? While much of the literature regarding charitable behavior is focused on the motivation for giving, relatively little is understood about the outcomes of giving behavior. Using a model developed from social exchange theory and data from the 2004 General Social Survey, structural equation modeling was employed to explore this relationship. Testing the Charitable Activity – Perceived Wellness Relationship model led to acceptance of the finding that participation in charitable activity is positively related to an individual’s self-perception of well-being. Furthermore, income, education, and having a religious orientation were found to be positively related to self-reported well-being. These effects were enhanced by participation in charitable activity. The results of this study have potential uses for financial planning practitioners, policy makers, and others with interests in family resource management issues and well-being. The possible avenues for further study include refinement of the model, development of a conceptual framework for teaching and research in family resource management, and the integration of other theories related to charitable giving such as the Identification Theory of Care and the Aquinian concept of caritas.

Narcissists are not generally thought of as altruistic individuals. There are certain conditions, however, that may meet the needs of narcissistic individuals and thus elicit altruistic behavior. These conditions include recognition for the act, or adding to narcissists’ already high opinion of themselves through executing the act. Because narcissists also demonstrate impulsivity, it is also possible that a time pressure may induce narcissists as well as impulsive individuals to act altruistically. The aim of this study is to determine in what context, if any, narcissistic and impulsive individuals may display acts of altruism, specifically charitable giving. This study uses a 2 (recognized vs. unrecognized) x 2 (time limited vs. time unlimited) between groups design. Participants will complete a Stop Signal task, a charitable giving task in which recognition and time limit are manipulated, demographic questions, and two measures of narcissism. The expected results are that higher scores on overt narcissism will lead participants to donate in conditions in which they receive recognition for their donation. Higher scores on covert narcissism will lead participants to donate in conditions where they are not recognized. Individuals with higher impulsivity scores as determined by the Stop Signal task will donate in time pressured conditions over time unlimited. And furthermore, impulsivity will act as a mediator between narcissism and charitable giving in time-limited conditions. Finally, implications of these results and future directions for research are discussed.

Le premier essai utilise une expérience neuro-économique pour comparer l’effet de l’exposition sociale sur deux types de comportements pro-sociaux : faire le bien et éviter de faire le mal. Nous constatons que les gains d’image découlant des actes visibles de générosité sont calculés comme des récompenses dans les deux cas. Les décisions égoïstes sans conséquences d’images négatives sont calculées différemment : ne pas faire le bien (et économiser ainsi de l’argent) est corrélé avec les régions du cerveau liées à la récompense, alors que faire le mal (et donc gagner de l’argent) est corrélé avec les régions du cerveau liées à l’anticipation de la punition et au dégoût moral.Le deuxième essai étudie comment l’information sur la véritable efficacité des organismes de bienfaisance (et sa visibilité sociale) affecte les contributions des petits donateurs. Nous constatons que les individus ignorent les mauvaises performances des organismes de bienfaisance quand le don est couvert par l ?anonymat mais augmentent leurs contributions aux organismes de bienfaisance qui sont plus performants que prévu. Toutefois, lorsque le montant donné et l’efficacité du destinataire sont de notoriété publique, les donateurs motivés par des préoccupations d’image sociale traitent la quantité et la qualité de leurs dons comme des substituts.Le troisième essai étudie les effets du contrôle dans les relations de principal agent où les intérêts monétaires sont alignés. En comparant le contrôle direct avec des règles impersonnelles générales, nous montrons que le contrôle direct génère plus de coûts cachés du côté de l’agent que les règles impersonnelles. En même temps, les directeurs ont tendance à moins exercer leur autorité lorsque les règles sont impersonnelles, car cela les obligent à signaler leur cupidité même lorsque ce n' est pas nécessaire. / This thesis contains two essays that assess the role of social image concerns in charitable giving decisions and one essay that explores the role of authority in hierarchical relationships characterized by aligned monetary interests.The first essay uses a neuro-economic experiment to compare the effect of social exposure on two types of pro-social behaviors: doing good and avoiding doing bad. We find that image gains deriving from visible acts of generosity are computed by the brain as rewards for both decisions. Differently, selfish decisions with no negative image consequences are computed differently: not doing good (and thus saving money) correlates with reward-related regions, while doing bad (and thus earning money) correlates with regions related to punishment’s anticipation and moral disgust.The second essay studies how information about real charities’ efficiency (and its social visibility) affects small donors contributions. We find that individuals disregard bad news about their own charities when giving happens under full anonymity, but do increase their contributions to charities that perform better than expected. Differently, when both the amount donated and the efficiency of the recipient are public knowledge, donors motivated by social image concerns treat the quantity and the quality of their donations as substitutes.The third investigates the effects of control in principal-agents’ relationships where monetary interests are aligned. By comparing direct control and general impersonal rules, we show that direct monitoring generates significantly more hidden costs of control from the agent side than impersonal rules.At the same time however, principals tend to exercise their authority less when restrictions are impersonal, as these force them to signal their greed also when unnecessary.

The purpose of this study was to explore faculty/staff identification with their employing university and how that, in turn, may influence their decision to financially support the institution, or not. This study employed a case study approach and a mixed methods research design utilizing both qualitative and quantitative data. An online survey using Cheney’s (1982) Organizational Identification Questionnaire measured faculty/staff members’ identification with the organization and with their specific departments. The survey also collected data on faculty/staff past charitable giving. Following the survey, qualitative focus groups and interviews were conducted with faculty/staff members to explore what factors contributed to their decisions to support the university, or not. The survey data revealed that faculty and staff members identify more highly with their departments and staff members identify more highly overall than faculty members. Yet, the survey also revealed that faculty members gave more financially to the university than did staff members. A thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed three overarching factors that influenced faculty/staff decisions to give, or not: affinity, capacity to give, and awareness. These findings offer insight to higher education universities and institutions about how identification between the faculty/staff members and the organization can affect their decisions to support the university. This case study makes a contribution to the literature on charitable giving, employee giving, and specifically, faculty/staff giving. It also extends extant literature on organizational identification, particularly targets of identification in a higher education context. Finally, this study offers practical implications for other universities, suggests directions for future research, and acknowledges the limitations.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 120-128).

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

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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.

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

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