2006 | 2005 | 2004 |2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 99 | 98 | 97 | 96 | 95 | 94 | 93 | 92 | 91 | 90 | 89 | 88 | 87 | 86 | Working Papers
"Better Than Gold: The Moral Biography of Charitable Giving."
Paul G. Schervish. ALDE Conference Presentation. Delivered as a keynote
presentation at the 2003 California Dreamin' Conference in Irvine, California.
This presentation focuses on the addition of a third key component for fundraising
in congregations in addition to the traditional mission-based and spirituality-based
approaches. The mission-based model of stewardship identifies congregational
needs and invites the congregation to contribute to meet those needs. The spirituality-based
model asks individuals to reflect upon their relationship to God and to develop
their inclination to become sacrificial givers to serve God's needs rather than
only meeting particular needs in the church. Although each of these models serve
their own vital role, a third model that considers the needs of the donating
member is of equal importance. I suggest the voluntary contribution of financial
gifts will be most highly motivated and productive where we find the confluence
of meeting the needs of the congregation, God, and the donor - what Thomas Aquinas
describes as the unity of love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self. I
discuss three important aspects of the needs of donors that should be taken
into account in stewardship efforts. The first aspect is the notion that charitable
giving is a practice that helps constitute an individual's life as a moral biography.
The second aspect is the increasing material capacity that is increasingly forming
the basis for growth in charitable giving. And finally, the third aspect is
the notion that working with the inclinations of donors through a self-reflective
process of discernment will make charitable giving more meaningful and more
abundant.
"Hyperagency and High-Tech Donors: A New Theory of the New Philanthropists."
Paul G. Schervish. Presented at the annual ARNOVA conference November, 2003.
This paper develops the theoretical concept of hyperagency and applies it to
interpret the philanthropy of high-tech donors in particular, and wealthy donors
in general.
"New Findings on the Patterns of Wealth and Philanthropy."
Paul G. Schervish and John J. Havens. Working Paper. (1) An update
on the patterns of wealth and philanthropy using the 2001 Survey of Consumer
Finances and reporting in 2002 dollars; (2) An update on the patterns of bequests
using 2000 IRS data updated to 2002 dollars; (3) An update of the wealth transfer
projections in 2002 dollars; (4) 20-year and 55-year projections for total charitable
contributions (bequests and inter-vivos giving in 2002 dollars).
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"Wealth Transfer in an Age of Affluence: An Interview
with Paul Schervish.”
Interviewed by Pamela Gerloff. More Than Money Journal. Spring 2003.
pp. 5-10.
MTM: You have written elsewhere that, “The leading cultural
and spiritual question of the current era is how to make wise decisions in an
age of affluence.” Is that what you’re suggesting—that people
in our society now have so many choices that wisdom is needed in making them?
Schervish: Aristotle understood that the goal of life is happiness—you
could also say love , unity with the divine presence, or a whole range of things,
but let’s just say that his term is one working definition of the goal
of life. Happiness is achieved if you can close the gap between where you and
those with whom you identify and care about are and where you and they would
like to be.
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"Why the $41 Trillion Wealth Transfer is Still Valid:
A Review of Challenges and Questions."
John J. Havens and Paul G. Schervish. The National Committee on Planned
Giving's The Journal of Gift Planning. Vol. 7, no. 1, 1st Quarter 2003.
pp. 11-15, 47-50.
Despite the economic downturn and the fall of the equity markets, the nationally
noted projection that a wealth transfer of at least $41-trillion will take place
in the United States by the year 2052 remains valid, according to researchers
at the Boston College Social Welfare Research Institute (SWRI), which issued
the original projection in 1999.
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"Gifts and Bequests: Family or Philanthropic Organizations?"
Paul G. Schervish and John J. Havens. In Alicia Munnell and Annika Sunden, (eds.), Death and Dollars, Brookings Press, 2003. This paper presents an alternative paradigm to economic models of transfers, one which we have developed from our extensive ethnographic and survey research on charitable giving and which we call the identification theory. The identification theory suggests that it is self-identification with others and with the needs of others, (rather than selflessness) that motivates transfers to individuals and to philanthropic organizations and that leads givers to derive satisfaction from fulfilling those needs. The allocation of transfers to family and philanthropy, we have found, is not so much a division between individuals and philanthropic organizations, as it is an allocation of transfers across an array of perceived needs, which combines both the needs of individuals, including family and friends, and needs served by philanthropic organizations. Moreover, the allocation is less a single conscious decision than a process imbedded in daily life experiences.
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