The purpose of this qualitative research study was to investigate the motivational factors that lead to faculty giving to their employing institutions. Giving practices in relation to the life experiences and independent influences of faculty members who were employed at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) were examined. In addition this study contributes to the limited amount of literature provided on HBCUs institutional advancement offices as well as the effectiveness of their solicitation efforts as perceived by faculty members employed at the colleges and universities. Three research questions were considered in this study. First, what life experiences contribute to the predisposition of faculty donors in giving to their institutions? Second, what intrinsic motivational elements influence faculty donors to give to their employing institutions? Third, how are the strategies used to solicit funding from faculty related to giving? Basic interpretive qualitative methodology was used to analyze the data gathered from the research participants. In-depth interviews were conducted with seven faculty members employed at HBCUs in the southern region of the United States. It was determined that faculty members attribute their giving practices to many of their life experiences. Religious involvement, childhood experiences, and family history, were all discussed by faculty members as being instrumental to their giving habits. Participants also discussed the sense of community that is established at HBCUs as being inspirational in determining whether or not they gave of their time, talent, or financial resources. Responses to open-ended questions about the effectiveness of institutional advancement offices provided additional qualitative data that could be used by HBCUs to increase the amount of annual giving to the university.

The purpose of this research is to analyze characteristics and motivators among alumni of the Community Involvement Program (CIP) for donating to the University of the Pacific. The research questions were: (1) what are the characteristics and motivators of CIP alumni for donating to the University of the Pacific? (2) do the characteristics and motivators influencing decisions to donate vary across minority ethnic groups? This research was conducted using a quantitative method to learn the challenges and motivators for alumni of a special program for minority students to donate to their alma mater, a private university. CIP was established in the late 1960s to answer the call of educating minority and other non-traditional university students from the local community. CIP supports non-traditional, first generation, and low-income students at the university through scholarships, academic support and social activities. This study opened a discussion about differences in ethnicities for alumni donations, finding that African Americans are more likely than other minorities to contribute. It also discovered that CIP alumni are very connected to their university and that there is a positive relationship between communications and contributing. In particular, there was a positive significant relationship between receiving a phone call from Pacific asking for donations and motivations to contribute. On the other hand, this population is balancing the expense of paying back loans, raising children and contributing to other community groups with their ability to contribute to Pacific. These findings point to new financial partners for Pacific and for CIP, as well as important ways to connect with these alumni. However, in the current economic (2009) conditions and for a group who is likely to fall squarely within the middle class, Pacific will need to balance its own efforts to gain addition contributions from CIP alumni with the community's needs for these same dollars. Pacific is likely to find that long-term projects, in which all departments collaborate to enhance the connections of alumni with all aspects of the campus, are likely to return the greatest value on those investments.

Urbanization, as it transforms natural biotic systems into human-dominated landscapes, is recognized as one of the greatest threats to biodiversity throughout the world. Furthermore, urban dwellers are becoming increasingly disconnected with the natural world. Here I investigate whether residential landscape designs that mimic the natural environment can provide habitat for native birds. First I uncover some of the patterns of bird distribution in residential yards by incorporating habitat features, urbanization measurements and socioeconomic factors with bird monitoring data into a multivariate analysis. The results indicate that native birds associate with neighborhoods with native plants and shrubs, neighborhoods closer to desert tracts, and higher income neighborhoods. Very few bird species associate with low income and predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods. Additional analyses based on social survey data demonstrate that residents notice the varying levels of bird variety in their neighborhood. Second, I address whether perceived habitat quality differs between residential landscape designs by testing foraging decisions at artificial food patches. Birds foraging in yards landscaped with native plants consume fewer resources than birds foraging in exotic landscaped yards. This suggests that alternative food sources are more available in the native landscaped yards, indicating better quality habitat. Third, I investigate the relationship between native bird diversity and neighborhoods with a Homeowner Association (HOA). Neighborhoods with an HOA have higher native bird diversity, perhaps due to an active and enforceable landscape maintenance plan. I suggest an HOA adapt features from the Sustainable Sites Initiative to further improve habitat conditions for native birds and other wildlife. Results from the Dissertation support the implementation of native landscaping in residential yards to help reverse the loss of urban biodiversity. Consequentially, these landscapes will provide positive opportunities for urban dwellers to reconnect with the natural world.

<p>  </p> <p>The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of purchasing purposes and country of origin on consumer’s purchasing intentions for sparkling wine, considering the effect of consumer’s value perceptions on the product. Two study populations were investigated: general U.S. wine consumers and self-identified food and beverage practitioners. It was found that for the general U.S. wine consumers, buying wine for gift giving or self-gifting would result in different purchasing intention and perceived emotional-social value, but Country of Origin (e.g., French Champagne or U.S. Sparkling Wine) did not result in any differences in purchasing intentions or perceived values. The practitioner group did not note any significant differences  between scenarios given the purchasing purposes and country of origin on their purchasing intentions and perceived values. Correlations of perceived emotional-social value, perceived price value and purchasing intention were found. Several practical and theoretical implications were presented. </p>

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This study explored foundation giving in the field of higher education philanthropy in Texas. Utilizing Fligstein and McAdam's conceptual framework, I found that a field-level analysis at the state level uncovered distinct profiles or groups of foundations hidden in the observed data over time. Texas was an interesting case because of its legal history preserving the state's wealth within its borders and its continuous economic growth sustaining philanthropic giving. Using latent profile analysis (LPA), I analyzed philanthropic giving data to reveal three distinct profiles of private foundations. In the four periods, generous visionaries was the smallest profile, lean supporters was the second largest, and balanced benefactors was the largest. Most foundations maintained their profile over time; only a few migrated through other profiles. Despite occasional shifts, the strategic action field of higher education philanthropy in Texas remained relatively stable, indicating persistence and endurance within the field. This study highlighted the importance of understanding foundation profiles for higher education administrators and foundation leaders by offering insights for strategic relationship-building and informed fundraising strategies. Furthermore, the study provided information for Texas policymakers to align state funding with philanthropic trends. Recommendations for future research included exploring foundation giving across different geographies, causes, and periods and conducting mixed-methods studies to delve deeper into foundation behaviors and impacts.

This study is about the artist Monica Sjoo’s (1938-2005) painting God giving birth (1968) that was accused of being blasphemous and obscene in the early 1970s. God giving birth could have had much in common with Niki de Saint-Phalle’s She – a cathedral (1966), both works suggesting a mother goddess image. The main difference however can be found in the fact that Monica Sjoo’s painting had connection to the women’s movement in the 1970s. Monica Sjoo’s artwork responded to other feminist artwork of that period. Among several feminist artists during the period about 1968-1985, an iconography was in use that focused on vulvar imagery, experience of childbirth and goddess images. In particulary the mother goddess was embraced. The female body in art was re-sacred and invested with meaning connected with women’s cycles of birth-death and rebirth and the earth as a mother goddess.

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.

Thesis (MA (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / The purpose of this study is to examine message production and image restoration in the narratives of isiXhosa-speaking farming communities. According to Gergen (1994), narrative forms – such as the stability narrative, progressive narrative and regressive narrative – are linguistic tools that have important social functions to fulfil. Gergen (1994) further indicates that self-narratives are social processes in which individuals are realised on the personal perspective or experience. The self-narratives used and analysed in this study portray the contemporary, truth-based elements of a well-formed narrative. Narrative accounts are also embedded within social action; they render events socially visible and typically establish expectations for future events because the events of daily life are immersed in narrative. The study starts by laying the foundation for the reasons why human beings tell stories and why stories are so important in people’s daily lives, since most people begin their encounters with stories at childhood. Possibly because of this intimate and long-standing acquaintance with stories from childhood, stories also serve as critical means by which human beings make themselves intelligible within the social world. This study further examines the motivations and conditions for account-giving in isiXhosa. Accounts are similar to narratives and can be retained at the level of private reflections for others to read, to be educated and to learn from and to refer to from time to time. Gergen (1994) considers self-narratives as forms of social accounting or public discourse. In this sense, narratives are conversational resources, their construction open to continuous alteration as interaction progresses. The study elaborates on this phenomenon, especially in the narrative accounts of the various isiXhosa stories that were collected and analysed. What emerges from the analyses is that the individual characters whose stories are told are portrayed as moving through their experience, dealing with some conflict or problem in their lives and, at the same time, searching for a resolution. It also emerges from the collection of these various isiXhosa narratives that they sharpen our understanding of the major stressful situations in each person’s mind and how the individual reasons about the difficulties encountered in life. The narratives prove, in this regard, to be a cultural resource that serves social purposes, such as self-identification, self-justification, self criticism and social solidification. In this sense then, for an account to be true, it has to be goal-orientated and relate to people’s day-to-day lives. The study finds that the social-interactive aspects of account-giving involve severe reproach forms, including personal attacks and derogatory aspects, which elicit defensive reactions resulting in negative interpersonal and emotional consequences.