Almost all of the scientific literature on charitable giving is implicitly based on a static paradigm which posits there are non-donors who never give and donors who habitually give year-in/year-out to a specific charitable purpose. This article presents evidence that charitable giving is not static, but dynamic: Few Americans never give, and among Americans that donate the majority are switchers—giving in some years but not others or switching from one charitable purpose to another. The implications are that a static perspective is misleading, and research questions should place more emphasis on the time dimension of charitable giving.
AdenaM.HuckS. (2017). Matching donations without crowding out? Some theoretical considerations, a field, and a lab experiment. Journal of Public Economics, 148, 32–42.
2.
AndreoniJ. (1989). Giving with impure altruism: Applications to charity and Ricardian equivalence. Journal of Political Economy, 97(6), 1447–1458.
3.
AndreoniJ. (1990). Impure altruism and donations to public goods: A theory of warm-glow giving. Economic Journal, 100, 464–477.
4.
AndreoniJ.GoldmanM.MarasM. (2019, November). Holier than thou? A natural field experiment on social information in charitable giving. Paper Presented at the Sixth Science of Philanthropy Initiative Conference, Chicago, IL.
5.
AndreoniJ.PayneA. A. (2013). Charitable giving. In AuerbachA.ChettyR.FeldsteinM.SaezE. (Eds.), Handbook of public economics (pp. 1–50). Elsevier.
6.
AndreoniJ.RaoJ. M.TrachtmanH. (2017). Avoiding the ask: A field experiment on altruism, empathy, and charitable giving. Journal of Political Economy, 125(3), 625–653.
AndreoniJ.Serra-GarciaM. (2019). The pledging puzzle: How can revocable promises increase charitable giving?University of California-San Diego.
9.
AsrafN.BandieraO. (2017). Altruistic capital. American Economic Review, 107(5), 70–75.
10.
AutenG.RudneyG. (1990). The variability of individual charitable giving in the US. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 1(2), 80–97.
11.
BakijaJ.McClellandR. (2004). Timing vs. long-run charitable giving behavior: Reconciling divergent approaches and estimates. Williams College.
12.
BarrettK. S.McGuirkA. M.SteinbergR. (1997). Further evidence on the dynamic impact of taxes on charitable giving. National Tax Journal, 50(2), 321–334.
13.
Barrett KevinS. (1991). Panel-data estimates of charitable giving: A synthesis of techniques. National Tax Journal, 44(3), 365–381.
14.
BatsonC. D.DarleyJ. M.CokeJ. S. (1978). Altruism and human kindness: Internal and external determinants of helping behavior. In PervinL.LewisM. (Eds.), Perspectives in interactional psychology (pp. 111–140). Springer.
15.
BeckerG. S. (1974). A theory of social interactions. Journal of Political Economy, 82(6), 1063–1093.
16.
BeckerG. S. (1996). Accounting for tastes. Harvard University Press.
BekkersR.WiepkingP. (2011a). A literature review of empirical studies of philanthropy: Eight mechanisms that drive charitable giving. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40(5), 924–973.
19.
BekkersR.WiepkingP. (2011b). Who gives? A literature review of predictors of charitable giving. Part One: Religion, education, age and socialisation. Voluntary Sector Review, 3(2), 217–245.
20.
BergstromT. C.BlumeL. E.VarianH. R. (1986). On the private provision of public goods. Journal of Public Economics, 29(1), 25–49.
21.
BouldingK. E. (1962). Notes on a theory of philanthropy. In DickinsonF. G. (Ed.), Philanthropy and public policy (pp. 57–72). NBER.
22.
BromanA. J. (1989). Statutory tax rate reform and charitable contributions: Evidence from a recent period of reform. Journal of the American Taxation Association, 10, 7–20.
23.
BryanJ. H.TestM. A. (1967). Models and helping: Naturalistic studies in aiding behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 6(4p1), 400.
24.
CastilloM.PetrieR.SamekA. (2017). Time to give: A field experiment on intertemporal charitable giving. Texas A & M University.
25.
CialdiniR. B.KenrickD. T.BaumannD. J. (1982). Effects of mood on prosocial behavior in children and adults. In EisenbergN. (Ed.), The development of prosocial behavior (pp. 339–358). Academic Press.
26.
ClotfelterC. T. (1980). Tax incentives and charitable giving: Evidence from a panel of taxpayers. Journal of Public Economics, 13(3), 319–340.
27.
CoeR. D. (1981). A preliminary empirical examination of the dynamics of welfare use. In DuncanG. J.MorganJ. N. (Eds.), Five thousand American families: Patterns of economic progress (Vol. 8, pp. 121–168). University of Michigan.
28.
DellaVignaS.ListJ.MalmendierU. (2012). Testing for altruism and social pressure in charitable giving. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127(1), 1–56.
29.
de WitA.BekkersR.Broese van GroenouM. (2017). Heterogeneity in crowding-out: When are charitable donations responsive to government support?European Sociological Review, 331(1), 59–71.
DickinsonF. G. (Ed.) (1962). Philanthropy and public policy. National Bureau of Economic.
32.
DonkersB.DiepenM.FransesP. H. (2017). Do charities get more when they ask more often? Evidence from a unique field experiment. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 66, 58–65.
33.
DuncanG. J.HillM. S.HoffmanS. D. (1988). Welfare dependence within and across generations. Science, 239, 467–471.
34.
EinolfC. J. (2018). Parents’ charitable giving and volunteering: Are they influenced by their children’s ages and life transitions? Evidence from a longitudinal study in the United States. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 47(2), 1092–1112.
35.
EinolfC. J.PhilbrickD. (2014). Generous or greedy marriage? A longitudinal study of volunteering and charitable giving. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 76, 573–586.
Faculty of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. (2019). Eight myths of U.S. philanthropy. Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall, 26–33.
38.
FalkA. (2007). Gift exchange in the field. Econometrica, 75(5), 1501–1511.
39.
FosgaardT. R.SoeteventA. R. (2018). Promises undone: How committed pledges impact donations to charity (Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper 2018/044-VII). https://ideas.repec.org/p/tin/wpaper/20180044.html
40.
FreyB. S.MeierS. (2004). Social comparisons and pro-social behavior: Testing” conditional cooperation” in a field experiment. American Economic Review, 94(5), 1717–1722.
41.
HelmsS. E.ThorntonJ. P. (2012). The influence of religiosity on charitable behavior: A COPPS investigation. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 41(4), 373–383.
42.
IsaacR. M.DavisD. D. (2006). Experiments investigating fundraising and charitable contributors. IsaacR. M. (Vol. 11, Series Ed.) Research in experimental economics. Elsevier.
43.
KnowlesS.ServátkaM. (2015). Transaction costs, the opportunity cost of time and procrastination in charitable giving. Journal of Public Economics, 125, 54–63.
44.
LandryC. E.LangeA.ListJ. A.PriceM. K.RuppN. G. (2010). Is a donor in hand better than two in the bush? Evidence from a natural field experiment. American Economic Review, 100(3), 958–983.
45.
LeeL.PiliavinJ. A.CallV. R. (1999). Giving time, money, and blood: Similarities and differences. Social Psychology Quarterly, 276–290.
46.
LeliveldM. C.RisseladaH. (2017). Dynamics in charity donation decisions: Insights from a large longitudinal data set. Science Advances, 3(9), Article e1700077.
47.
LevisB.MillerB.McGinnessH.WilliamsC.DietzN. (2016). Donor retention: Highlights from the 2016 fundraising effectiveness donor retention supplement. Urban Institute and Association of Fundraising Professionals. Retrieved August 18, 2020, from https://afpfep.org/reports/
48.
LevisB.MillerB.WilliamsC.CraverC.GreenfieldJ. (2017). Effectiveness survey report. Urban Institute and Association of Fundraising Professionals. Retrieved August 18, 2020, from https://afpfep.org/reports/
49.
ListJ. A.PriceM. K. (2012). Charitable giving around the world: Thoughts on how to expand the pie. CESifo Economic Studies, 58(1), 1–30.
50.
McGarryK. (2016). Dynamic aspects of family transfers. Journal of Public Economics, 137, 1–13.
51.
McGonagleK. A.SchoeniR. F.SastryN.FreedmanV. A. (2012). The Panel Study of Income Dynamics: Overview, recent innovations, and potential for life course research. Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 125(2), 268–284.
52.
MeerJ. (2011). Brother can you spare a dime? Peer pressure in charitable solicitation. Journal of Public Economics, 95, 926–941.
53.
MeerJ. (2013). The habit of giving. Economic Inquiry, 51(4), 2002–2017.
54.
MeerJ. (2017). Does fundraising create new giving?Journal of Public Economics, 145, 82–93.
55.
MeerJ.MillerD.WulfsbergE. (2017). The Great Recession and charitable giving. Applied Economics Letters, 24(21), 1542–1549.
MeierS. (2007). Do subsidies increase charitable giving in the long run? Matching donations in a field experiment. Journal of the European Economic Association, 5(6), 1203–1222.
58.
MorganJ. N. (1961). Volunteerism in America-Attitudes and behaviors. National Bureau of Economic Research.
59.
OppenheimerD. M.OlivolaC. Y. (2011). The science of giving: Experimental approaches to the study of charity. Routledge.
60.
Ottoni-WilhelmM. (2010). Giving to organizations that help people in need: Differences across denominational identities. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 49(3), 389–412.
61.
Ottoni-WilhelmM.ZhangY.EstellD. B.PerdueN. H. (2017). Raising charitable children: The effects of verbal socialization and role-modeling on children’s giving. Journal of Population Economics, 30(1), 189–224.
62.
Panel Study of Income Dynamics. (2017). Public use dataset. Produced and distributed by the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research. University of Michigan.
PollakR. A. (1970). Habit formation and dynamic demand functions. Journal of Political Economy, 78(4 Part 1), 745–763.
65.
ReinsteinD. A. (2011). Does one charitable contribution come at the expense of another?The BE Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 11(1), Article 40.
66.
SamekA.LongfieldC. (2019). Do thank-you calls increase charitable giving? Expert forecasts and field experimental evidence. Expert Forecasts and Field Experimental Evidence April 13, 2019. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3371327
67.
ScharfK.SmithS.Ottoni-WilhelmM. (2020). Lift and shift: The effect of fundraising interventions in charity space and time. University of Bristol.
68.
SchoeniR. F.StaffordF.McGonagleK. A.AndreskiP. (2013). Response rates in national panel surveys. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 645, 60–87.
69.
WiepkingP.BekkersR. (2012). Who gives? A literature review of predictors of charitable giving. Part Two: Gender, family composition and income. Voluntary Sector Review, 3(2), 217–245.
70.
WiepkingP.HandyF. (Eds.) (2015). The Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy. Palgrave Macmillan.
71.
WilhelmM. O. (2006). New data on charitable giving in the PSID. Economics Letters, 92(1), 26–31.
72.
WilhelmM. O. (2007). The quality and comparability of survey data on charitable giving. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(1), 65–84.
73.
WooldridgeJ. M. (2010). Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data. MIT Press.
74.
WuK.BrownM. S. (2010). An examination of persistence in charitable giving to education through the 2002 economic downturn. International Journal of Educational Advancement, 9(4), 196–219.
75.
YörükB. K. (2013). The impact of charitable subsidies on religious giving and attendance: Evidence from panel data. Review of Economics and Statistics, 95(5), 1708–1717.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
