Party membership and charitable giving in China: the mediating role of resources, networks, prosocial values and making compulsory donations

Previous studies suggest that Communist Party members in China are more likely to give and give more to charity than non-Party members, but why this is remains unclear. Using the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS, 2012), this article develops and tests hypotheses about the potential mechanisms that influence the relationship between Party membership and charitable giving. Uniquely, total charitable giving in China includes both voluntary and compulsory donations. Generalised structural equation modelling results indicate that Party members donate more overall, because they have higher levels of human resources, larger formal networks and higher prosocial values and are more likely to make compulsory donations than non-Party members. Interestingly, our results show that making compulsory donations crowds out voluntary giving. Therefore, Party members donate only marginally more than non-Party members in terms of voluntary giving.

Why do Indonesian Muslims donate through mosques?

Purpose This study aims to determine the factors that influence the decisions of Muslims in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country and recently acknowledged as the world’s most generous country (CAF, 2017), to donate money through mosques. Design/methodology/approach This study uses the extended theory of planned behaviour to determine the above-mentioned factors. Primary data were obtained via a survey that generated 235 responses from respondents in Depok City, Indonesia. The primary data were analysed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling. Findings The findings suggest that stronger religious beliefs, a greater trust in mosques, ease of making donations, the influence of significant others and good past experiences of donating to mosques influence donations to mosques in Depok. Thus, most of the hypotheses tested are accepted. However, the relationships between attitude and intention and moral norms and intention are found to be insignificant, which the authors presume to be related to the collective culture of Muslims in Indonesia. Practical implications The managements of mosques need to build, maintain and increase the trust of their congregations in the institution. They also need to improve the services they provide to their congregations and endorse charitable activities through influential persons such as ulama and celebrities. Together with the other stakeholders, such as the government and Muslim communities, they should also improve access to donate and increase the impacts of the donations. Originality/value This study offers fresh and current insights into voluntary giving behaviour to a specific religious institution/channel in the world’s largest Muslim country, which has also recently been acknowledged as the world’s most generous country.

Understanding Individual Voluntary Giving as a Practice: Implications for Regional Arts Organisations in the UK

This research examines individual voluntary giving as an integrative practice. Our research speaks to the new funding challenges traversing the British arts sector. Historically reliant on government funds, increasingly regional non-profit arts organisations must diversify their income sources and target a range of voluntary givers. By drawing on practice theories and interpretive qualitative data, we illuminate how giving understandings, procedures and engagements interconnect and interact, coming together in ways that lead to specific giving choices that prioritise cause-based charities over the arts. In doing so, we make two original contributions towards existing sociological research on voluntary giving. First, we transform and broaden the scope of empirical research by conceptualising voluntary giving as an integrative practice. Second, we offer a lens through which to investigate and explicate shared social processes, mechanisms and acts that traverse structures and individuals, co-construing and reproducing voluntary giving patterns.

Historical Perspectives on Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy

We define philanthropy as voluntary giving by households or corporate bodies to promote charitable causes, projects, and organizations or, alternatively, as “voluntary action for the public good.” Entrepreneurial philanthropy refers specifically to “the pursuit by entrepreneurs on a not-for-profit basis of big social objectives through active investment of their economic, cultural, social and symbolic resources.” Government projects financed by taxation and interfamily resource transfers are never philanthropic. Gifts only qualify as philanthropic when the donor is under no compulsion to give, when the gift benefits people with whom the donor is not directly connected, when the gift is made from the donor's own resources, and when the donor receives no direct economic benefit as a consequence of making the gift. In other words, philanthropists invest their own resources in causes they believe will benefit others and that yield no direct benefit to themselves or their families.

Historical Development of the Zakat System Implications for Social Work Practice

Zakat, infaq, shadaqa, waqf, dan qurban adalah sumber kesejahteraan sosial bagi delapan golongan mustahiq. Studi sejarah perkembangan zakat menguak sistem dan praktek zakat yang berkembang mengikuti dinamika masyarakat. Terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara zakat dan konsep kesejahteraan sosial Islam sebab zakat digunakan untuk mendukung subsidi kesehatan, pendidikan, dan ekonomi para mustahiq. Konsep-konsep derma wajib (obligatory giving) dan tidak wajib (voluntary giving) dalam Islam, keberhasilan LAZIS dalam melayani mustahiq serta perannya dalam memberdayakan kaum miskin akan dibahas dalam beberapa model program, termasuk juga implikasi kajian ini bagi praktek pekerjaan sosial di Indonesia. Keywords: zakat, obligatory and voluntary giving, social work.