Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

The Geography and Disparities of Community Philanthropy: A Community Assessment Model of Needs, Resources, and Ecological Environment

  • Research Papers
  • Published:
VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Community foundations exemplify a growing form of place-based philanthropic efforts for addressing public problems. However, why do such efforts occur in some places, but not in others? Using an original population dataset of community foundations that combines community characteristics with service area data across 3130 US counties, the empirical analyses of hurdle negative binomial models reveal distinct patterns in explaining their locational distribution and philanthropic activities. Community foundations tend to emerge or flourish in urban communities which are White-dominant, ethnically homogeneous, and less religious but have more social and human capital. Crossing the zero hurdle, their philanthropic activities tend to bloom in ethnically diverse and unequal communities but plummet in highly educated communities with more high-income earners, whereas rural and vulnerable communities with high proportions of residents who are young, old, unemployed, and disabled exemplify potential service gaps of community foundations associated with their rarity and/or fewer philanthropic activities. This study presents a community assessment model and empirical evidence of what might promote and inhibit the occurrence of community philanthropic efforts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The conceptual framework, hence, would not necessarily mirror those for explaining nonprofit location or density that test the merits of government failure theory and interdependence theory (Lecy and Van Slake 2013; Kim 2015; Liu 2017). In the American context, community foundations primarily rely on public donations (the public support test) from their communities but not government funding, unlike typical human service nonprofits. Archival research provides evidence that they are local innovation that was driven by self-organizing philanthropic efforts, not by government resources (Hammack, 1989; Ostrower, 2007).

  2. The final list includes community foundations with Employer Identification Number (EIN). For data handling and analysis, we excluded community foundations located in US territories and social justice funds (N = 12) since most of them are not locally based but serving across states.

  3. Robust variance estimation affects the standard errors and variance–covariance matrix of the estimators but not the estimated coefficients. Additionally, spatial regression or geographically weighted regression cannot be performed in this study since they can only deal with the clustering effect of OLS regression. Yet, the data have excessive zeros and are highly skewed, making it computationally intensive (da Costa 2016). After adding a spatial lag variable (Yan et al. 2014), the statistical model failed to converge

  4. This measure was used instead of median household income due to its high multicollinearity issue with poverty rate (VIF > 5).

  5. When selecting the social capital measure, it was aware that other county-level social capital measures were available. For example, Harvard University's 2006 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey provides a measure of family closeness, neighborhood interactions, voluntary actions, religious attendance, and political involvement. However, as it has much less county coverage than PSU-SC Index, the PSU-SC index was adopted instead. This PSU-SC index is also weakly correlated to the primary dependent variable, r = − 0.044.

  6. Both (zero-inflated and hurdle) models can deal with the high occurrence of zeros in the observed data but have one key distinction in how they interpret and analyze zero counts. The zero-inflated model formulation assumes that the zeros and nonzeros (positives) come from the same data-generating process, whereas the hurdle model assumes two distinct decision processes, “whether or not there is a community foundation” and “how many, given yes,” which makes it more useful than other count models (Dalrymple et al. 2003; Greene 2008).

  7. The hurdle regression models were fitted via maximum likelihood using “hurdle” function available in the countreg package using R statistical software. See more: https://rdrr.io/rforge/countreg/man/hurdle.html. Alternatively, “churdle” function might be used to compute the estimation in Stata.

  8. For brevity and given the limited space, only second-part results were included for analyzing the positive values of philanthropic activities and do not list out the first-part results on the presence of these activities, because they largely mirror the results for the presence of foundations, as one would expect.

  9. Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. is a case in point that funded special projects and helped community foundations in Indiana build unrestricted endowments since 1990 (See https://lillyendowment.org/our-work/community-development/strengthening-indiana/). Other private and foundation funders that have played an important role include Charles Stewart Mott Foundation which provides continuous institutional support to the community philanthropy field (see https://www.mott.org/work/civil-society/enhancing-community-philanthropy/), Ford Foundation which helped increase the community foundations’ assets (see https://www.fordfoundation.org/media/1742/2007-funding_foundations.pdf), Cleveland foundation that has inspired the community foundation movement (see https://www.clevelandfoundation100.org/foundation-of-change/invention/national-community-foundation-movement/), and The James Irvine Foundation’s Community Foundations Initiative (CFI) that supported the creation of 16 community foundations in California (see https://irvine-dot-org.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/52/attachments/Growing_Smarter.pdf?1412656307).

  10. See also https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/SD/24090.pdf.

  11. Government variables (i.e., county government’s direct expenditure, state-level expenditure, state government payroll, and the number of local government) are found to be insignificant in the analyses.

Reference

  • Adler, P. S., & Kwon, S. W. (2002). Social capital: Prospects for a new concept. Academy of Management Review, 27(1), 17–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adloff, F. (2015). Foundations and the charisma of giving: A historical sociology of philanthropy in Germany and the United States. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 26(1), 2002–2022.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alesina, A., & La Ferrara, E. (2000). Participation in heterogeneous communities. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(3), 847–904.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alesina, A., & La Ferrara, E. (2002). Who trusts others? Journal of Public Economics, 85(2), 207–234. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2727(01)00084-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anheier, H. K., & Hammack, D. C. (2010). American foundations, roles and contributions. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnstein, S. R. (1969). A ladder of citizen participation. Journal of the American Planning Association, 35(4), 216–224.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arsneault, S. (2006). Implementing welfare reform in rural and urban communities: Why place matters. American Review of Public Administration, 36(2), 173–188.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bekkers, R. (2003). Trust, accreditation, and philanthropy in the Netherlands. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 32(4), 596–615.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bekkers, R., & Wiepking, P. (2011). Who gives? A literature review of predictors of charitable giving part one: religion, education, age and socialisation. Voluntary Sector Review, 2(3), 337–365.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ben-Ner, A., & Van Hoomissen, T. (1991). Nonprofit organizations in the mixed economy. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 62(4), 519–550.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ben-Ner, A., & Van Hoomissen, T. (1992). An empirical investigation of the joint determination of the size of the for-profit, nonprofit and government sectors. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 63(3), 391–415.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bielefeld, W., Murdoch, J. C., & Waddell, P. (1997). The influence of demographics and distance on nonprofit location. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 26(2), 207–225.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1983). The field of cultural production, or: The economic world reversed. Poetics, 12(4–5), 311–356.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). Westport: Greenwood Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. J. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brandsen, T., & Pestoff, V. (2006). Co-production, the third sector and the delivery of public services. Public Management Review, 8(4), 493–501.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, E., & Ferris, J. M. (2007). Social capital and philanthropy: An analysis of the impact of social capital on individual giving and volunteering. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(1), 85–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bushouse, B. K. (2017). Leveraging nonprofit and voluntary action research to inform public policy. Policy Studies Journal, 45(1), 50–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, A. C., & Trivedi, P. K. (1998). Regression analysis of count data (1st ed.). Econometric Society Monograph No.30. Cambridge University Press.

  • Carman, J. G. (2001). Community foundations: A growing resource for community development. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 12(1), 7–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, Y. (2019). Exploring the role of nonprofits in public service provision: moving from coproduction to cogovernance. Public Administration Review, 79(2), 203–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, T. L., Bryer, T. A., & Meek, J. W. (2006). Citizen-centered collaborative public management. Public Administration Review, 66(s1), 76–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corbin, J. J. (1999). A study of factors influencing the growth of nonprofits in social services. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 28(3), 296–314.

    Google Scholar 

  • Costa, D. L., & Kahn, M. E. (2003). Civic engagement and community heterogeneity: An economist’s perspective. Perspectives on Politics, 1(1), 103–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coulton, C. J., Korbin, J. E., Su, M., & Chow, J. (1995). Community level factors and child maltreatment rates. Child Development, 66(5), 1262–1276.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cui, L., & Walsh, R. (2015). Foreclosure, vacancy and crime. Journal of Urban Economics, 87, 72–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • da Costa, M. M. (2016). What influences the location of nonprofit organizations? A spatial analysis in Brazil. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 27(3), 1064–1090.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, S. (2008). Institutional innovation in philanthropy: Community foundations in the UK. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 19(3), 219–241.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dalrymple, M. L., Hudson, I. L., & Ford, R. P. K. (2003). Finite mixture, zero—inflated poisson and hurdle models with application to SIDS. Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, 41(3–4), 491–504.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diaz, W. A., & Shaw, A. (2002). Community foundations and progressive grantmaking public charities. In L. C. Burbridge, W. A. Diaz, T. Odendahl, & A. Shaw (Eds.), The meaning and impact of board and staff diversity in the philanthropic field: Findings from a national study. San Francisco: Joint Affinity Groups.

    Google Scholar 

  • Easterling, D. (2011). Promoting community leadership among community foundations: The role of the social capital benchmark survey. The Foundation Review, 3(1), 81–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eikenberry, A. M. (2006). Giving circles: Growing grassroots philanthropy. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 35(3), 517–532.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eikenberry, A. M. (2007). Philanthropy, voluntary association, and governance beyond the state giving circles and challenges for democracy. Administration and Society, 39(7), 857–882.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eikenberry, A. M. (2009). Giving circles: Philanthropy, voluntary association, and democracy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gathiram, N. (2006). Poverty, development and disability. Social Work, 42(3–4), 251–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrow, E. E. (2012). Does race matter in government funding of nonprofit human service organizations? The interaction of neighborhood poverty and race. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 24(2), 381–405.

    Google Scholar 

  • Global Fund for Community Foundation. (2014). Community Foundation Atlas. Retrieved November 30, 2018, from http://communityfoundationatlas.org/.

  • Graddy, E. A., & Morgan, D. L. (2006). Community foundations, organizational strategy, and public policy. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 35(4), 605–630.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graddy, E., & Wang, L. (2009). Community foundation development and social capital. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 38(3), 392–412.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greene, W. H. (2008). Econometric analysis (6th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Practice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grønbjerg, K. (2006). Foundation legitimacy at the community level in the United States. The legitimacy of philanthropic foundations: United States and European perspectives (pp. 150–174).

  • Grønbjerg, K. A., & Paarlberg, L. (2001). Community variations in the size and scope of the nonprofit sector: Theory and preliminary findings. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 30(4), 684–706.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo, C., & Brown, W. A. (2006). Community foundation performance: Bridging community resources and needs. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 35(2), 267–287.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo, C., & Musso, J. A. (2007). Representation in nonprofit and voluntary organizations: A conceptual framework. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(2), 308–326.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, D. H. (1989). The Community Foundation in America, 1914–1987. In R. Magat (Ed.), Philanthropic giving: Studies in varieties and goals (pp. 180–199). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, D. C. (1989). Community foundations: The delicate question of purpose. In R. Magat (Ed.), An agile servant: Community leadership by community foundations (pp. 23–50). New York: Foundation Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, D. C. (Ed.). (1998). Making the nonprofit sector in the United States: A reader. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, D. C. (2018). Appendix B: Community funds and the distribution of smaller foundations. In D. C. Hammack & S. R. Smith (Eds.), American philanthropic foundations: Regional difference and change (pp. 343–355). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, D. C., & Anheier, H. K. (2013). A versatile American institution: The changing ideals and realities of philanthropic foundations. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, D. C., & Smith, S. R. (2018a). American philanthropic foundations: Regional difference and change. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, D. C., & Smith, S. R. (2018b). Foundations in the United States: Dimensions for international comparison. American Behavioral Scientist, 62(12), 1603–1638.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joassart-Marcelli, P., & Wolch, J. R. (2003). The intrametropolitan geography of poverty and the nonprofit sector in Southern California. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 32(1), 70–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, R. W., & Pridemore, W. A. (2016). A longitudinal study of the impact of home vacancy on robbery and burglary rates during the US housing crisis, 2005–2009. Crime and Delinquency, 62(9), 1159–1179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenney, G. M., Long, S. K., & Luque, A. (2010). Health reform in Massachusetts cut the uninsurance rate among children in half. Health Affairs (Project Hope), 29(6), 1242–1247.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, M. (2015). Socioeconomic diversity, political engagement, and the density of nonprofit organizations in U.S. counties. American Review of Public Administration, 45(4), 402–416.

    Google Scholar 

  • Layton, M. D. (2016). Philanthropy at the community level: Supporting community empowerment. In Jung T, Susan D. Phillips, & Jenny Harrow (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philanthropy (pp. 139–150).

  • Lecy, J. D., & Van Slyke, D. M. (2013). Nonprofit sector growth and density: Testing theories of government support. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 23(1), 189–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, G. (2017). Government Decentralization and the Size of the Nonprofit Sector: Revisiting the Government Failure Theory. American Review of Public Administration, 47(6), 619–633.

    Google Scholar 

  • Long, J. S., & Freese, J. (2006). Regression models for categorical dependent variables using Stata. College Station: Stata Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lowe, J. S. (2004). Community foundations: What do they offer community development? Journal of Urban Affairs, 26(2), 221–240.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lu, J. (2017). Does population heterogeneity really matter to nonprofit sector size? Revisiting Weisbrod’s demand heterogeneity hypothesis. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-017-9915-4

  • Mallach, A., & Brachman, L. (2013). Regenerating America’s legacy cities. Cambridge: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

    Google Scholar 

  • McDougle, L. M. (2015). The accuracy of the core files for studying nonprofit location: How many nonprofits are there? Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 44(3), 609–624.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mcdowell, A. (2003). From the help desk: Hurdle models. The Stata Journal, 3(2), 178–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millesen, J. L., & Martin, E. C. (2014). Community foundation strategy. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 43(5), 832–849.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostrander, S. A. (2007). The growth of donor control: Revisiting the social relations of philanthropy. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(2), 356–372.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom, V. (1994). The meaning of American federalism: Constituting a self-governing society. San Francisco: ICS Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostrower, F. (1997). Why the wealthy give: The culture of elite philanthropy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostrower, F. (2007). The relativity of foundation effectiveness: The case of community foundations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(3), 521–527.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paarlberg, L. E., An, S. H., Nesbit, R., Christensen, R. K., & Bullock, J. (2018). A field too crowded? How measures of market structure shape nonprofit fiscal health. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 47(3), 453–473.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peck, L. R. (2008). Do antipoverty nonprofits locate where people need them? Evidence from a spatial analysis of Phoenix. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 37(1), 138–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, S., Bird, I., Carlton, L., & Rose, L. (2016). Knowledge as leadership, belonging as community: How Canadian community foundations are using vital signs for social change. The Foundation Review, 8, 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, R. D. (1993). The prosperous community. The American Prospect, 4(13), 35–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, R. D. (1995). Bowling alone: America’s declining social capital. Journal of Democracy, 6(1), 65–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, R. D. (2007). E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and community in the twenty-first century. Scandinavian Political Studies, 30(2), 137–174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, R. D. (2016). Our Kids: The American dream in crisis. New York: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ragey, N., Masaoka, J., & Peters, J. B. (2005). Convergence and competition: United Ways and community foundations: A national inquiry. San Francisco, CA: CompassPoint.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossi, P. H., & Weber, E. (1996). The social benefits of homeownership: Empirical evidence from national surveys. Housing Policy Debate, 7(1), 1–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rupasingha, A., Goetz, S. J., & Freshwater, D. (2006). The production of social capital in US counties. The Journal of Socio-economics, 35(1), 83–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saffari, S. E., Adnan, R., & Greene, W. (2012). Hurdle negative binomial regression model with right censored count data. Statistics and Operations Research Transactions SORT, 36(2), 181–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sargeant, A., & Woodliffe, L. (2007). Building donor loyalty: The antecedents and role of commitment in the context of charity giving. Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing, 18(2), 47–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saxton, G. D., & Benson, M. A. (2005). Social capital and the growth of the nonprofit sector. Social Science Quarterly, 86(1), 16–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schuller, T. (2007). Reflections on the use of social capital. Review of Social Economy, 65(1), 11–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sidel, M. (2010). Recent developments in community foundation law: The quest for endowment building. Chicago-Kent Law Review, 85(2), 657.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silver, I. (2007). Disentangling class from philanthropy: The double-edged sword of alternative giving. Critical Sociology, 33(3), 537–549.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suárez, D. F., & Esparza, N. (2017). Institutional change and management of public–nonprofit partnerships. American Review of Public Administration, 47(6), 648–660.

    Google Scholar 

  • United States Department of Justice. (2016). Federal Bureau of Investigation. Uniform crime reporting program data: County-level detailed arrest and offense data, 2014. ICPSR36399-v2. Ann Arbor, MI.

  • Weisbrod, B. A. (1975). Toward a theory of the voluntary non-profit sector in a three-sector economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiepking, P., & Maas, I. (2009). Resources that make you generous: Effects of social and human resources on charitable giving. Social Force, 87(4), 1973–1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolch, J. R., & Geiger, R. K. (1983). The distribution of urban voluntary resources: An exploratory analysis. Environment and Planning A, 15(8), 1067–1082.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolpert, J. (1993). Decentralization and equity in public and nonprofit sectors. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 22(4), 281–296.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolpert, J. (1995). Giving and region: Generous and stingy communities. New Directions for Philanthropic Fundraising, 1995(7), 11–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolpert, J. (1988). The geography of generosity: Metropolitan disparities in donations and support for amenities. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 78(4), 665–679.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wooldridge, J. M. (2010). Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yan, J., Guo, C., & Paarlberg, L. E. (2014). Are nonprofit antipoverty organizations located where they are needed? A spatial analysis of the greater Hartford region. The American Statistician, 68(4), 243–252.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and scholars working in the field of community philanthropy, whom I have benefited substantially from their insightful work and comments. Much appreciation also goes to Dr. Ioana Marinescu, Dr. Chao Guo and Dr. Weiai (Wayne) Xu, and the panel participants at the 2018 ARNOVA-Asia conference and 2018 Academy of Management Conference, for providing valuable feedback to this research. Last but not least, I would like to thank important collaborators of this research project, including Dr. Laurie Paarlberg, Colton Strawser, Jin Ai, and Yue Ming, for partaking in a collaborative endeavor to collect service area data of community foundations.

Funding

No funding has been received for conducting this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Viviana Chiu-Sik Wu.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 232 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wu, VS. The Geography and Disparities of Community Philanthropy: A Community Assessment Model of Needs, Resources, and Ecological Environment. Voluntas 32, 351–371 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-019-00180-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-019-00180-x

Keywords

Navigation