"The Moral Biography of Wealth: Philosophical Reflections on the Foundation
of Philanthropy."
Paul G. Schervish. Published in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
Volume 35, No. 3, pp. 477-492. September 2006.
Moral biography refers to the way all individuals conscientiously
combine two elements in daily life: personal capacity and moral compass. Exploring
the moral biography of wealth highlights the philosophical foundations of major
gifts by major donors. First, the author provides several examples to elucidate
his definition of moral biography. Second, he elaborates the elements of a moral
biography. Third, he describes the characteristics that make one's moral biography
a spiritual or religious biography. Fourth, he discusses the distinctive characteristics
of a moral biography of wealth. Fifth, he suggests that implementing a process
of discernment will enable development professionals to work more productively
with donors. The author concludes by placing the notion of a moral biography
of wealth in historical context and suggests how advancement professionals can
deepen their own moral biography by working to deepen the moral biography of
their donors.
"Major Donors, Major Motives: The People and Purposes Behind
Major Gifts."
Paul G. Schervish. In New Directions for Philanthropic Fundraising: Developing
Major Gifts, edited by Dwight F. Burlingame and James M. Hodge. 16 (Summer 1997):
85-112.
In this paper I attempt to explain what motivates the charitable giving of the
wealthy, or more succinctly, the major motives of major donors. My research
over the past twelve years has enabled me to distill an answer that is both
simple and complex. The simple part is that what motivates the wealthy is very
much what motivates someone at any point along the economic spectrum. The complex
part about the charitable motivation of the wealthy is that those who hold great
wealth and consciously direct it to social purposes invariably want to shape
rather than merely support a charitable cause.
"Making Money and Making a Self."
Paul G. Schervish. In Principality and Individuality: The Moral Careers and
Moral Biographies of the Conscientious Wealthy, by Paul G. Schervish. Under
contract with the University of Chicago Press, 1990.
I analyze entrepreneurship
as a moral career, a joint venture of making money and making a self. Drawing
on intensive interviews with 49 entrepreneurs, I discuss how entrepreneurs move
through four stages of world-building and self-construction.
"The Material Horizons of Philanthropy: New Directions for Money and Motives."
Paul G. Schervish. April 24, 2001. Forthcoming in New Directions in Philanthropic Fundraising.
This is the first part of a two-part essay exploring the emerging financial and social-psychological
factors that I believe are setting new directions in charitable giving. These new directions revolve in large part around a shift to a supply side understanding of charitable giving, especially by
high net worth individuals.
"The Methods and Metrics of the Boston Area Diary Study."
John J. Havens and Paul G. Schervish. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly,
vol. 30, no.3, Sept. 2001, pp. 527-550.
In this paper we discuss the conceptual
framework, methods, and findings of BADS in order to provide insights into the
problems and prospects of survey research on philanthropy. We hope that the
lessons we have learned may both provide knowledge on the fabric of care in
our society, as well as suggest theoretical and practical implications for others
conducting survey research in this field.
"A Methodological Test of Giving: Using Indiana as a
Test Case."
Patrick Rooney, Kathryn Steinberg and Paul G. Schervish. Nonprofit and
Voluntary Sector Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 3, Sept. 2001, pp.551-568.
In the most recent phase of the telephone survey of giving and volunteering
conducted every 4 years, "Indiana Gives," eight groups of approximately
100 randomly selected Indiana residents were asked to complete one of eight
surveys related to giving and volunteering. It was found that the longer the
module and the more detailed its prompts, the more likely a household was to
recall making any charitable contribution and the higher the average level of
its giving.
"Methodology is Destiny: The Effect of Survey Prompts on Reported
Levels of Giving and Volunteering."
Paul G. Schervish, Patrick Rooney, and Kathryn Steinberg. Nonprofit and Voluntary
Sector Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 4, p, December 2004 pp. 628-654.
In a random telephone survey, five groups of at least 800 people responded to
several different surveys related to the amount of time and money they had given
in the last year. This study found that those respondents who were given the
longer and more detailed surveys were likely to remember more of their charitable
contributions than those presented with less detailed surveys.
"Millionaires and the Millennium: New Estimates of the Forthcoming Wealth Transfer and the Prospects for a Golden Age of Philanthropy".
John J. Havens and Paul G. Schervish.
New estimates
showing forthcoming wealth transfer over the 55-year period from 1998 to 2052 will be at least $41 trillion and possibly as high as $136 trillion. October 19, 1999.
"The Mind of the Millionaire: Findings from a National Survey on Wealth
with Responsibility."
Paul G. Schervish and John J. Havens. New Directions in Philanthropic Fundraising,
Understanding Donor Dynamics: The Organizational Side of Charitable Giving.
Edited by Eugene R. Tempel. Number 32, Summer 2001, pp. 75-107.
In this paper, we present some new findings on the intersection of wealth and
beneficence, empowerment, and moral direction derived from the "Wealth
With Responsibility Study / 2000" carried out over two years from March
1998 to March 2000 for Bankers Trust Private Banking and, now Deutsche Bank
Private Banking. The sample was 112 families worth $5 million or more. "28%"
were the extremely wealthy worth $50 million or more. The paper discusses the
implications of the findings. What conclusions can fundraisers, nonprofits,
estate planners, financial advisors, and other practitioners draw about how
they can better help high-net-worth clients translate their financial wherewithal
into an expression of their values in a way that responds to society’s
needs?
Download the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy/ Bankers Trust Report(76KB)
Download Published Article:
"The Mind of the Millionare: Findings from a National Survey on Wealth with
Responsibility" (3.6MB)
Download the 1998 Study on Wealth with Responsibility Survey Questionnaire (640KB)
Download Extended Report
"The Modern Medici: Patterns, Motivations, and Giving Strategies
of the Wealthy."
Paul G. Schervish. Paper presented on the panel, "The New Philanthropists,"
at the inaugural forum, "What is 'New' About New Philanthropy," of the University
of Southern California Nonprofit Studies Center. Los Angeles, January 20, 2000.
This paper addresses three aspects of the relationship between wealth and philanthropy
that can serve as foundations for understanding and influencing what I consider
to be a forthcoming golden age of philanthropy: the large and exponential growth
in wealth, the motivational array that inclines wealth holders to contribute
to charity, and the array of strategies they use in carrying out their philanthropy.
"Money and Hyperagency: The Worldly Empowerment of Wealth."
Paul G. Schervish and Andrew Herman. Presented at the Conference on Money: Lure, Lore & Liquidity, Hofstra University, Nov. 1991.
This paper examines money in the form of financial wealth and
moral capital. Our purpose is to articulate the distinctive characteristics of the wealthy as individual agents in contemporary American capitalist society. We argue that the wealthy are uniquely
endowed with material resources and cognitive dispositions that enable them, both as a group and as individuals, to shape the rules, practices and positions of social structure.
"Money and Magnanimity: New Findings on the Distribution of Income, Wealth, and Philanthropy."
Paul G. Schervish and John J. Havens. Nonprofit Management & Leadership
8, no. 4 (Summer 1998): 421-434.
In this paper we address several additional
empirical questions about variation in the level of charitable giving across
and within categories of income. We interpret the findings to mean that the
roots of generosity reside in an array of social-psychological factors that
are more profound than the fact that people are rich or poor.
"The Moral Biographies of the Wealthy and the Cultural Scripture of Wealth."
Paul G. Schervish. In Wealth in Western Thought: The Case for and Against Riches, edited by Paul G. Schervish. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994. 167-208.
In this paper I seek to make sociological
sense of
how the wealthy make moral sense of their wealth. The leading questions are firstly, how the autobiographical narratives of the wealthy take shape as moral biographies in which the wealthy recount
their exercise of virtue to make more of what is given them by fortune? And secondly, what this reveals about the underlying social meaning of wealth in American society?
"The Moral Biography of Wealth: Philosophical Reflections on
the Foundation of Philanthropy."
Paul G. Schervish, April 2005.
This paper examines the meaning and practice of the "moral biography of
wealth " defined as an donor's combination of personal capacity and moral
compass. Through a discussion of the characteristics of the moral biography,
highlighted by examples from literature and popular culture, Schervish aims
to help fundraisers better understand their donors, and to help the donors themselves
give obtain greater results from the act of giving.
