Abstract
At present, approximately half of all charitable giving from individual donors in the United States goes to religious organizations, most of which use some of these funds for a wide variety of services to their communities. A substantial share of volunteer time is also donated to these organizations, and religious convictions are one of the primary motivations given for volunteering, prompting religiously involved people to give and volunteer at rates higher than the national average. For these reasons, measurement of religious commitment has become a significant aspect of recent research on the nonprofit sector (Wuthnow & Hodgkinson, 1991). This chapter examines the contribution that research, sponsored in recent years by the Independent Sector, has made to knowledge of the relationships among religion, giving, and volunteering. It then offers a critical assessment of this contribution and suggests ways to measure religious commitment that have proven helpful in other studies and that might be use-fully incorporated into future work on the impact of giving and volunteering. Finally, several specific areas are identified in which further research might be especially valuable.
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Wuthnow, R. (2002). The Religious Dimensions of Giving and Volunteering. In: Flynn, P., Hodgkinson, V.A. (eds) Measuring the Impact of the Nonprofit Sector. Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0533-4_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0533-4_14
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