A small proportion of American charitable donors give to international causes. Aid to developing countries constitutes a large part of this charitable sector. By studying donors who make contributions to causes outside the US, we may better understand the factors which shape public concern for global poverty and inequality, and which influence the will for redistribution. While a substantial amount of research has investigated the determinants of overall giving in the US, little is known about the determinants of giving to specific causes, especially international causes. With the data set, “Giving and Volunteering in the United States 2001,” this study uses econometric regression analysis to estimate the predictors of giving to international causes and compares them to the determinants of giving to other causes such as health, education and the arts. My main hypothesis is that educational and religious institutions influence people to identify with and donate to individuals and causes in the developing world. This is based on the theory in altruism studies that people behave prosocially when they identify others’ interests as indistinct from their own. The results of econometric analysis support the idea that education and religiosity are significant predictors of giving to international causes, but suggest that other mechanisms are more influential. Of the predictors included in the regression model, youth volunteering has the largest effect on the likelihood that someone gives internationally, both compared to other predictors in the model, and compared to the effect of youth volunteering on giving to other causes. The size and significance of the effect of each variable vary by cause, confirming that there are unique determinants for giving to different charitable sectors. For giving to international causes, the results suggest that being foreign born, having volunteered in one’s youth, belonging to a non-religious group, attending religious services frequently and having a four-year college degree or more are all significant factors. These variables may represent mechanisms for identification, as well as other factors that motivate charitable giving such as individual personality characteristics. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Thesis does not include an abstract / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

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Private philanthropy is important in America. In 1985, philanthropy totaled almost 80 billion dollars. Philanthropy is partially a function of price. Absent a tax benefit, the price of charitable giving is unity. When tax benefits are available, the price of cash giving is one minus the marginal tax rate of the donor. Philanthropy is not evenly distributed among all classes of organizations. Changes in tax cost bring about changes in the distribution of gifts among organizations. Predictions have been made of a six to twelve billion dollar decline in individual giving as a result of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The question is, "Whose ox gets gored?" In 1962, the Internal Revenue Service collected data directly linking itemized charitable contributions to class of donee organization. Prior works by Taussig, Schwartz, Feldstein, and Clotfelter have been principally based on this data. Their works document differing elasticities of price on charitable giving. The current research gathered 1985 data on the relationships between income, price, and charitable donee for 298 Dallas County, Texas, taxpayers. Data was obtained from selected certified public accountants in Dallas County who prepared income tax returns for individuals as part of their practice. Two hundred fifty usable responses reflected charitable gifts. The data collected permitted the tax benefit resulting from charitable gifts to be calculated. Income levels and marginal tax rates on those gifts were then correlated with donee organizations using multiple regression analysis. The main effects of price and income on giving were masked by multicollinearity. The interaction effects of price and other independent variables showed little price effect on giving. Only when coupled with the income variable at income levels of $50,000 was the price effect significant.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / A sizeable body of research has attempted to examine the interaction between government spending and private giving known as the crowd-out effect. Most researchers reported that increases of government spending cause decreases of philanthropic giving to different types of nonprofits. However, few studies have attempted to indicate the interaction between government welfare expenditures and private giving to human service organizations even though human service organizations are the most sensitive to the changes of government spending. Additionally, the estimated crowd-out effects with a simple crowd-out model have been criticized for potential endogeneity bias. This paper investigates the total effect of federal government welfare spending on state government expenditures and philanthropic giving to human service organizations (known as joint crowd-out). I used the 2005 wave of the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study (COPPS) to estimate the effect of federal human service grants on state government spending on, and donations to human services. From these reduced-form estimates I infer the levels of simple and joint crowd-out. I found that indicate federal spending on public welfare crowds out private giving to human service organizations while holding control variables constant in the donations equation. However, federal government spending on public welfare crowds in state government spending on public welfare.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This dissertation analyzes the critique of charity and philanthropy implicit in Melville’s short fiction written for periodicals between 1853 and 1856. Melville utilized narrative and tone to conceal his opposition to prevailing ideologies and manipulated narrative structures to make the reader complicit in the problematic assumptions of a market economy. Integrating close readings with critical theory, I establish that Melville was challenging the new rhetoric of philanthropy that created a moral identity for wealthy men in industrial capitalist society. Through his short fiction, Melville exposed self-serving conduct and rationalizations when they masqueraded as civic-minded responses to the needs of the community. Melville was joining a public conversation about philanthropy and civic leadership in an American society that, in its pursuit of private wealth, he believed was losing touch with the democratic and civic ideals on which the nation had been founded. Melville’s objection was not with charitable giving; rather, he objected to its use as a diversion from honest reflection on one’s responsibilities to others.