Charitable Giving in the Public Workplace

Abstract

This study addresses formal workplace giving campaigns, a less-researched area of philanthropic studies that is increasingly important to the nonprofit sector and a fixture in local, state, and federal governments. Using data from an electronic survey administered to state employees at a large public university and mixed methods for preliminary analysis, a three-part analytical framework is proposed to better explain workplace giving, looking in particular at how philanthropic crowding, organizational identification, and conceptions of community influence employee donative behavior. No evidence is found that workplace giving crowds out private giving, and a possible reinforcement effect is detected in that those who give in the workplace also tend to give outside the workplace. Organizational identification and conceptions of community are also found to influence workplace donative behavior.

Keywords:

• nonprofits
• philanthropic performance
• public employees
• workplace giving