Collective Philanthropy: Describing and Modeling the Ecology of Giving |
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| Authors: | William L. Gottesman Andrew James Reagan Peter Sheridan Dodds |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, United States of America.; 2. Center for Complex Systems, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, United States of America.; 3. Computational Story Lab, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, United States of America.; 4. Vermont Advanced Computing Core, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, United States of America.; Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Germany, |
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| Abstract: | Reflective of income and wealth distributions, philanthropic gifting appears to follow an approximate power-law size distribution as measured by the size of gifts received by individual institutions. We explore the ecology of gifting by analysing data sets of individual gifts for a diverse group of institutions dedicated to education, medicine, art, public support, and religion. We find that the detailed forms of gift-size distributions differ across but are relatively constant within charity categories. We construct a model for how a donor''s income affects their giving preferences in different charity categories, offering a mechanistic explanation for variations in institutional gift-size distributions. We discuss how knowledge of gift-sized distributions may be used to assess an institution''s gift-giving profile, to help set fundraising goals, and to design an institution-specific giving pyramid. |
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