Lilly Family School of Philanthropy Theses and Dissertations

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The Effects of Social Information, Social Norms and Social Identity on Giving
(2008-06-09T19:41:30Z) Shang, Yue; Sargeant, Adrian; Burlingame, Dwight F.; Gunderman, Richard; Lenkowsky, Leslie
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.
The Ecumenical Coalition of the Mahoning Valley: How Church Leaders Became Involved in the Steel Business
(2008-07-07T17:18:22Z) Grzesiak, Michael P.; Burlingame, Dwight F.; Lenkowsky, Leslie; Pallante, Martha I.
Youngstown, Ohio was devastated by the closing of three major steel mills in three years: In all, more than 15,000 steelworkers and another 35,000 in related industries lost jobs in this period. The purpose of this thesis is to study the response of the local nonprofit sector to the closing of the Campbell Works, a mill located just outside the city of Youngstown that employed approximately 4,100. The activities of traditional nonprofit organizations are briefly reviewed; however, much of this study focuses on the story of the Ecumenical Coalition of the Mahoning Valley, a diverse group of religious leaders whose mission evolved into a campaign to garner the resources necessary to purchase the Campbell Works and reopen it as an employee-owned company. Additional analysis is made of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Weirton, West Virginia; two nearby steel centers that faced similar economic downturns in the 1980s and used the lessons learned from the Ecumenical Coalition. The final chapter of this thesis examines the work of two researchers, Vaughn Grisham, Jr. and Richard Cuoto, and their work studying Tupelo, Mississippi and Appalachia, respectively. In these works, we see cities and regions laid bare by stark economic conditions and the collective action taken by a wide variety of constituencies to not only survive but to thrive.
Program Evaluation Capacity for Nonprofit Human Services Organizations: An Analysis of Determining Factors
(2008-10-13T17:46:24Z) Alaimo, Salvatore; Reingold, David A.
The increasing call for accountability combined with increasing competition for resources has given program evaluation more importance, prominence and attention within the United States nonprofit sector. It has become a major focus for nonprofit leaders, funders, accrediting organizations, board members, individual donors, the media and scholars. Within this focus however there is emerging attention and literature on the concept of evaluation capacity building to discover what organizations require to be able to effectively and efficiently evaluate their programs. This study examines this topic within the environment and stakeholder relationship dynamics of nonprofit human service organizations. A multi-stakeholder research approach using qualitative interviews of executive directors, board chairs, program staff, funders and evaluators, as well as two case studies, is employed to provide insight into the factors that determine an organization’s evaluation capacity. The overarching goal of this research is to impart this information to stakeholders interested in program evaluation, by analyzing elements for capacity beyond the more common, narrow scope of financial resources and evaluation skills. This purposeful approach intends to broaden our understanding of evaluation capacity building to encompass developing the necessary resources, culture, leadership and environments in which meaningful evaluations can be conducted for nonprofit human service programs. Results indicated that effective evaluation capacity building requires more than just funds, personnel and expertise. Some of the important factors that impacted this process included leadership; value orientations; congruence among stakeholders for their perceptions of evaluation terms and concepts; resource dependency; quality signaling; stakeholder involvement and understanding of their role in program evaluation; organizational culture; organizational learning; personal preferences; and the utilization of available evaluation tools. This study suggests that stakeholders interested in effectively building capacity to evaluate programs should be cognizant of these political, financial, social, intellectual, practical, structural, cultural and contextual implications.
The public role of professionals: Developing and evaluating the civic-minded professional scale
(2008-10-13T18:35:55Z) Hatcher, Julie A.; Bringle, Robert G.; Burlingame, Dwight; Chism, Nancy; Perry, James L.
This research provided understanding of the concept civic-minded professional. A civic-minded professional is one who is(a)skillfully trained through formal education, with (b) the ethical disposition as a social trustee of knowledge, and (c) the capacity to work with others in a democratic way, (d) to achieve public goods. Forty-four items were developed for the Civic-Minded Professional scale based on a multi-disciplinary literature review. The scale was part of an online survey distributed to a national sample of faculty in higher education (n=373)to evaluate the reliability (alpha = .95) and validity of the scale. Exploratory factor analysis reduced the scale to thirty-two item and five factors (i.e., voluntary action, citizenship, social trustee, identity and calling, consensus building).
American Indian foundations: philanthropic change and adaptation
(2009-03-18T15:25:57Z) Seely, Dagmar; Burlingame, Dwight F.; Huehls, Frances A.; Brescia, William
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.
Making "We Serve" an Inclusive Mission: How the Fargo Lions Club Integrated Women into Full Membership
(2009-09-30T18:56:45Z) Nathan, Sarah Katheryn; Huehls, Frances A; Burlingame, Dwight F.; Littlefield, Robert S.
In May 1987 the United States Supreme Court ruled in Board of Directors, Rotary International v. Rotary Club of Duarte that exclusion of women in large clubs such as Rotary was not protected under their Constitutional right to freedom of expression. The ruling ultimately opened the doors of traditionally-male service clubs to women. Through a case study of the Fargo Lions Club (Fargo, North Dakota), I sought to understand what happened in the first years of women’s membership in the association. These women are almost totally overlooked in the small body of literature that currently exists on service clubs and understanding this redefinition of associational freedom within the nonprofit sector is a unique contribution to philanthropic studies. A retrospective tracer methodology reconstructs the sequence of events and decisions made by the Fargo Lions Club in response to the Supreme Court ruling. How the club accepted and included women is traced through personal interviews with key members, contemporary news reports and archival records.
A mechanism of American museum-building philanthropy, 1925-1970
(2010) Miller, Brittany L.; Monroe, Elizabeth Brand, 1947-; Burlingame, Dwight; Scarpino, Philip V.
This thesis investigates why twentieth-century philanthropists, such as Henry Ford, John and Abby Rockefeller, Henry du Pont, and Henry and Helen Flynt, developed American museums between 1925 and 1970. These individuals shared similar beliefs and ideological perspectives of American history, which shaped their museum-building efforts. Additionally, philanthropists had financial resources, social networks, and access to agents. The combination of these elements assisted in the establishment of their institutions. Over two generations, these museum builders established an American museum ideal through the implementation of their philanthropy. Philanthropists’ extensive financial resources, combined with philanthropic and museum-oriented ideas of the time, provided the impetus for the creation of new museums and collections. Furthermore, this work investigates Henry Ford as a case study of the philanthropic system used to establish these institutions. Ford’s agents mediated an exchange of artifacts and resources between Ford and average people, who were willing to give buildings, furnishings, and industrial machinery to the museum. This multi-directional system of philanthropy exemplifies the relationship between Ford as the philanthropist, his agents, and potential donors, to create his museums. Other philanthropists and institutions are referenced to further illustrate the museum building process and the role of philanthropy established at this time.
The Philanthropic Behavior of Nonprofit Hospitals
(2010-02-02T20:14:17Z) Lyons, Alvin L.; Steinberg, Richard; Wittberg, Patricia, 1947-; Morrison, Wendy; Katz, Robert
The study of the nonprofit sector has traditionally focused on nonprofit organizations as recipients of charity. A perspective that has been relatively neglected is that of nonprofit organizations as not only recipients but also as donors of charitable resources. This dissertation explores the phenomenon of philanthropic behavior of nonprofit organizations, using studies of the contributions and community health programs of nonprofit hospitals in Indiana as an example. Philanthropic behavior is defined as actions and programs initiated by a nonprofit organization to meet additional community needs – beyond its primary mission or services. It presents the hypothesis that such activities are undertaken for reasons similar to for-profit organizations – and have comparable organizational benefits. The studies reported in the dissertation show a wide variation in reporting such activities as well as of the organizational structures in place to manage such behavior. This variation is seen even in seemingly similar hospitals such as religious hospitals within an identified system. The dissertation discovers that while nonprofit organizations may engage in philanthropic behavior, these practices go largely unrecognized. Because the actions are not systematically noted or recorded, some very significant residual benefits that nonprofits provide for their defined communities are also unrecognized. It also finds that when these activities are evident, they are driven more by the professional values and actions of individual employees than by organizational policies. The dissertation concludes that drawing conclusions from this study of the data on Indiana hospitals – both from state reports and the IRS Form 990s – is difficult. There is an inconsistency between the two databases as well as within each of the datasets that makes any specific conclusions as to the relative values of different hospitals or to standards is suspect. It notes that while the revised Form 990 should help in overall transparency, the reporting of areas such as health education and donations will most probably continue to be inconsistent. This inconsistency makes the information difficult to use as either an evaluation tool or as policy to encourage community-serving behavior.
The Sisters of Charity in Nineteenth-Century America: Civil War Nurses and Philanthropic Pioneers
(2010-07-19T15:11:44Z) Coon, Katherine E.; Robertson, Nancy Marie, 1956-; Schultz, Jane E.; Wittberg, Patricia
This thesis seeks to answer the following question: What was the legacy of the Sisters of Charity in the history of philanthropy, women’s history, medicine and nursing? The Sisters of Charity was a Catholic religious order that provided volunteer nurses, and became highly visible, during the American Civil War. Several hundred Catholic sister nurses served; they supported both the Union and Confederacy by caring for soldiers from both armies. The sisters’ story is important because of the religious and gender biases they overcame. As nurses, the Sisters of Charity interacted with different people: they cared for soldiers, worked at the direction of surgeons and alongside lay relief workers. The war propelled them into public view, and the sisters acted as agents of change. Their philanthropy eroded some of the antebellum cultural proscriptions that previously confined Catholics, women and nurses. This thesis argues the Sisters of Charity created and implemented an antebellum philanthropic model, key aspects of which the majority, non-Catholic culture emulated after the war. The Sisters of Charity were agents of social change: they broke down religious, social and gender barriers, and developed a prototype for a healthcare model that the secular world emulated. Many women responded to the unprecedented suffering and cataclysmic conditions of the Civil War in a multitude of ways, and philanthropy was forever changed as a result. Wartime benevolence provided templates for large-scale voluntary organizations, illuminated the issue of payment for charity workers, moved the practice of philanthropy from individual to institutional, and led to the development of nursing as a profession. Female voluntarism shifted into the front and center of the public sphere. Charitable work moved along the continuum from individual to institutional, from volunteer to professional. Questions regarding the respective roles of payment to charitable workers developed. Nursing gained recognition as a profession, and formal training began. The Sisters of Charity were leaders in all these areas, and their orders served as models for the future of philanthropy. Yet they are often absent from analyses of the trajectory of nineteenth-century philanthropy, and this thesis delivers them to the discussion.
Rational Generosity: The Indianapolis Foundation and the Community Foundation Response to the Great Depression
(2010-07-19T17:37:34Z) Kienker, James Robert; Burlingame, Dwight F.; Scarpino, Philip V.; Huehls, Frances A.
A historical analysis of the philanthropic response to the Great Depression by community foundations; the thesis uses the individual story of the Indianapolis Foundation as a case study to provide detailed examples of how community foundations modified their grant-making behavior in response to the Great Depression’s economic effects.

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