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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

Public funding of higher education has declined substantially in recent years (Alexander, 2000; Esposito, 2010; Mortenson, 2012; NACUBO, 2011; Redd, 2014; Serna and Harris, 2014), while operating costs and demand have increased (Desrochers and Kirshstein, 2012; Mortenson, 2012; Mumper and Freeman, 2011; NCSES, 2014; Serna and Harris, 2014; St. John and Parsons, 2004), forcing institutions to look for alternative sources of revenue (NCSL, 2010). One such alternative source of revenue is alumni giving (Monks, 2003; Archibald and Feldman, 2012; CAE, 2014). Research has shown that the factors that influence alumni financial giving include demographic characteristics (Hoyt, 2004; Monks, 2003), academic experiences (Monks, 2003; Pumerantz, 2005), social experiences (Monks, 2005; Thomas and Smart, 2005; Volkwein, 1989), and alumni participation variables (Gaier, 2005; Gallo and Hubschman, 2003). Although there is ample evidence to support the importance of alumni giving, researchers have not examined the factors that influence young alumni giving. This study sought to determine if demographic characteristics, academic experiences and social experiences explain the variance in alumni giving to their alma mater within five years of graduating. I conducted a case study at a single institution and used Volkwein's (1989) model of giving coupled with data from the 2011 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) that captured alumni's demographic characteristics and measured their academic and social experiences while in college. I merged NSSE with data about giving that I retrieved from the Development Office at the selected institution. The variables included five Demographic items, fourteen Academic Experience items with numerous sub-items, and twelve Social Experience items with numerous sub-items. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five academic factors and four social factors. The results of a multiple regression analysis revealed that only one factor, Class Assignments, explained the variance in young alumni giving, but it may have been spurious. It would appear that demographic characteristics and academic and social factors determined from NSSE are not particularly useful in explaining giving by young alumni. Indeed, only 14.5% of participants actually made a donation within five years of graduating. Clearly more research is needed to expand upon the literature about alumni giving. / Ph. D. / Public funding of higher education has declined substantially in recent years (Alexander, 2000; Esposito, 2010; Mortenson, 2012; NACUBO, 2011; Redd, 2014; Serna & Harris, 2014), while operating costs and demand have increased (Desrochers & Kirshstein, 2012; Mortenson, 2012; Mumper & Freeman, 2011; NCSES, 2014; Serna & Harris, 2014; St. John & Parsons, 2004), forcing institutions to look for alternative sources of revenue (NCSL, 2010). One such alternative source of revenue is alumni giving (Monks, 2003; Archibald & Feldman, 2012; CAE, 2014). This study sought to determine if demographic characteristics, and academic and social experiences while in college, explain the differences in alumni giving to their alma mater within five years of graduating. Using a single institution and Volkwein’s (1989) model of giving, coupled with data from the 2011 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and institutional giving data, it would appear that demographic characteristics and academic and social factors determined from NSSE are not particularly useful in explaining giving by young alumni.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Todd F. Simon / Cultivating relationships with millennial donors -- individuals born between 1982 through 1995 -- has become a topic of interest for researchers, organizations and fundraisers. Kansas State University had begun creating a “giving-back culture” among current students through a student-led campaign, in the hope of augmenting alumni donations to the university in the future. This study explored current students’ motives to give back to their university, determined the factors influencing their decision-making process, and discerned the effects of a student-giving campaign on postgraduates’ giving behavior. Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations model helped explain the influence of communication channels and opinion leaders on the decision-making process of millennial donors, both alumni and current students. This study found that millennials are motivated to donate based on several campaign factors, such as the mission, how the money is be used, the receiving of a gift for their donation, and pride in the institution. Friends and close colleagues have a positive influence on millennials’ donation decisions. Millennials also were found to have a preference for the traditional medium of newspaper, along with a high degree of influence for campaign events with face-to-face communication. The lack of apparent effect for students’ self-reported preferences for social media seems to indicate that either diffusion is not at work for this campaign, or that the diffusion process has yet to accelerate for giving back. These findings support previous research on alumni-donor motivations as well as build a foundation for future studies on millennial-donor motivations.

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.

For more than a decade tourists originating in developed nations have been giving various gifts to locals of tourism communities in developing nations. This occurrence is commonly associated with the Caribbean, and is particularly well known to occur in Cuba. Tourism has often been adopted as a part of economic development strategies of developing nations, however due to a lack of studies on tourists’ philanthropic gift-giving it is unclear how the occurrence affects both human and economic development, and likewise its impacts such as possibilities of population disparity. There are current restrictions in Cuba which forbid locals from accepting the gifts of international tourists (Taylor & McGlynn 2009; Mesa-Lago 2005), however the island’s unique need for material goods seems to over-rule this policy. The implication herein indicates benefits to accepting gifts from tourists. Tourism employees most frequently come in contact with tourists and the potential of gift receipts by tourism employees is heightened. This in turn carries implications of social disparities amongst the population resulting from unequal gift receipts by tourism employees. Furthermore, current research suggests that complex social relationships are created through gift-giving yet little is understood within the context of tourist-to-local community member. The goal of this thesis is to determine whether international tourist philanthropic gift-giving contributes to social disparity within a local community as well as its affects on human and economic development. This has been achieved through case study research from a mixed-methods approach in Trinidad, Sancti Spirtus, Cuba. The results of this research point to significant economic gains and improvement in access-to-material-goods through tourists’ gift-giving, which in turn have been found to contribute to economic development. However, the external nature of tourists’ gift-giving limits using the phenomenon as a reliable tool for economic development. Impacts on human development are not as clearly defined. Although tourists’ gift-giving contributes to some aspects of human development, the phenomenon cannot be considered to contribute to overall human development. Although population disparity was found to be an impact of tourists’ philanthropic gift-giving, community members viewed the occurrence as a positive benefit of tourism. The policy in Cuba restricting locals from accepting tourists’ gifts has been largely ineffective as this type of economic gain was found to be well integrated in the informal economy. The general public is largely unaware of the policy and it is likely Cubans will continue to accept tourists’ gifts. Although this research has revealed interesting insight regarding tourists’ philanthropic gift-giving much remains to be known of its impacts and several recommendations for future studies are suggested.

For more than a decade tourists originating in developed nations have been giving various gifts to locals of tourism communities in developing nations. This occurrence is commonly associated with the Caribbean, and is particularly well known to occur in Cuba. Tourism has often been adopted as a part of economic development strategies of developing nations, however due to a lack of studies on tourists’ philanthropic gift-giving it is unclear how the occurrence affects both human and economic development, and likewise its impacts such as possibilities of population disparity. There are current restrictions in Cuba which forbid locals from accepting the gifts of international tourists (Taylor & McGlynn 2009; Mesa-Lago 2005), however the island’s unique need for material goods seems to over-rule this policy. The implication herein indicates benefits to accepting gifts from tourists. Tourism employees most frequently come in contact with tourists and the potential of gift receipts by tourism employees is heightened. This in turn carries implications of social disparities amongst the population resulting from unequal gift receipts by tourism employees. Furthermore, current research suggests that complex social relationships are created through gift-giving yet little is understood within the context of tourist-to-local community member. The goal of this thesis is to determine whether international tourist philanthropic gift-giving contributes to social disparity within a local community as well as its affects on human and economic development. This has been achieved through case study research from a mixed-methods approach in Trinidad, Sancti Spirtus, Cuba. The results of this research point to significant economic gains and improvement in access-to-material-goods through tourists’ gift-giving, which in turn have been found to contribute to economic development. However, the external nature of tourists’ gift-giving limits using the phenomenon as a reliable tool for economic development. Impacts on human development are not as clearly defined. Although tourists’ gift-giving contributes to some aspects of human development, the phenomenon cannot be considered to contribute to overall human development. Although population disparity was found to be an impact of tourists’ philanthropic gift-giving, community members viewed the occurrence as a positive benefit of tourism. The policy in Cuba restricting locals from accepting tourists’ gifts has been largely ineffective as this type of economic gain was found to be well integrated in the informal economy. The general public is largely unaware of the policy and it is likely Cubans will continue to accept tourists’ gifts. Although this research has revealed interesting insight regarding tourists’ philanthropic gift-giving much remains to be known of its impacts and several recommendations for future studies are suggested.

In 2011, over 30 billion dollars were given to colleges and universities across the United States; donors included individuals, corporations, foundations, and religious organizations. Of the 30 billion dollars, 43% of this financial support came directly from individual and alumni donors (Council for Aid to Education, 2011). Leslie and Ramey (1988) stated that “voluntary support is becoming the only source of real discretionary money [that a college or university has]” (p. 115). The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of responses from senior class students on the 2006 National Survey of Student Engagement to be used as predictors of alumni donor participation in liberal arts colleges. The sample of this study was 10 Carnegie Baccalaureate Colleges from the southeastern United States. The institutions that participated provided alumni donor participation data for members of the undergraduate class of 2006 for a five-year post-graduation period. Logistical regression models were developed to represent the multivariate impacts of NSSE benchmark scores and student demographics independent variables on the bivariate alumni donor participation rate dependent variable. The results indicated that two NSSE benchmarks, measured by the 2006 NSSE, (Level of Academic Challenge and Student-Faculty Interaction) and three demographic variables (parental level of education, Greek Life membership, and receipt of an institutional scholarship) had a positive relationship with increased alumni donor participation.