Publications

Educators

Web

Buy Now, Pay Later: Credit and Charity

HBS Quick Links MBA Executive Education Doctoral Programs Faculty and Research Alumni HBS Publishing Site Index HBS Home Contact Us Map/Directions Introduction Credit in Pre-Industrial Society Imagining Pre-Industrial Credit Credit and View Details

2005
Book

Gifts of Time and Money: The Role of Charity in America's Communities

By: Arthur C. Brooks

Policymakers, civic leaders, and scholars have increasingly focused their attention over the last decade-and-a-half on the importance of voluntary participation in civil society. From George H. W. Bush's Thousand Points of Light to Bill Clinton's AmeriCorps to George... View Details

Keywords: Volunteering; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Society; United States

December 2013 (Revised June 2014)
Case

Choosing a Charitable Giving Vehicle

By: Robert C. Pozen, Mayur Desai and Maura A. Graul

Elaine White is an accountant advising two couples, the Carsons and the Bradleys, regarding their charitable giving options and related tax strategies. The Carsons are an upper-middle class family with $295,000 in income, a moderate amount of deductions, and... View Details

Keywords: Charitable Giving; Tax Accounting; Tax Strategy; Public Charities; Foundations; Charity; Charitable Remainder Trusts; Charitable Lead Trusts; Donor-Advised Funds; Pooled Income Funds; Taxation; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; United States

Educators

December 2013
Teaching Note

Choosing a Charitable Giving Vehicle

By: Robert C. Pozen, Mayur Desai and Maura A. Graul

Elaine White is an accountant advising two couples, the Carsons and Bradleys, regarding their charitable giving options and related tax strategies. The Carsons are an upper-middle class family with $295,000 in income, a moderate amount of deductions, and... View Details

Keywords: Charitable Giving; Tax Accounting; Tax Strategy; Charity; Charitable Lead Trusts; Charitable Remainder Trusts; Public Charities; Foundations; Donor-Advised Funds; Pooled Income Funds; Taxation; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; United States

19 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

What Motivates People to Give Generously—and Why We Sometimes Don't

that shows people are much more likely to give to a charity if that charity promises to never ask them again. This reinforces what Julian was saying: While some strategies might make short-run donations go... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint, HBS Alumni Bulletin

01 Dec 2020
News

In the Zone

majoring in economics.) “The challenges that exist in the lives of the young people we serve in central Harlem—extreme poverty, domestic violence, a single-parent household—existed in my family in one way, shape, or form,” says Owusu-Kesse. “I feel called to this work.... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; nonprofit management; urban development; leadership; public education; Educational Services

Research Summary

Charitable Investing

He is working on the subject of why and how private foundations and public charities could buy securities in a private commercial venture if it furthered their charitable mission. For example, a MS foundation would buy stock in a start-up biotech venture... View Details

March 2002
Case

AOL, Cisco, Yahoo!: Building the Internet Commons

By: James E. Austin

Since the spring of 2001, AOL, Cisco, and Yahoo! had collaborated on ways to improve the effectiveness of using the Internet to benefit society. Each company considered itself strongly committed to philanthropy, making significant charitable donations, and fostering a... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Business and Community Relations; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry

2006
Book

Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism

By: Arthur C. Brooks

We all know we should give to charity, but who really does? Approximately three-quarters of Americans give their time and money to various charities, churches, and causes; the other quarter of the population does not. Why has America split into two nations: givers and... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Demographics; United States

14 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 14

Publications October 2014 Journal of International Economics The Global Agglomeration of Multinational Firms By: Alfaro, Laura, and Maggie Xiaoyang Chen Abstract—The explosion of multinational activities in recent decades is rapidly... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Sep 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior

Keywords: by Lalin Anik, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton & Elizabeth W. Dunn

21 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 21

Publications 2006 Harvard Business Review Press Keeping Up with the Quants: Your Guide to Understanding and Using Analytics By: Davenport, Thomas H., and Jinho Kim Abstract—Managers today need to be able to analyze and make sense of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 18

Working PapersFeeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior Authors:Lalin Anik, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton, and Elizabeth W. Dunn Abstract While lay intuitions and pop psychology suggest that helping others leads to... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Regina E. Herzlinger

Regina E. Herzlinger is the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. She was the first woman to be tenured and chaired at Harvard Business School and serve on many established and start-up corporate health care/medical... View Details

Keywords: health care; insurance industry; medical devices; retailing; digital health

Research Summary

Unintended Consequences of Fundraising Tactics

Charity fundraisers use a variety of methods to increase donations, with three of the most common being matching funds, seed money, and thank you gifts. Field experiments have shown that matching funds (Eckel and Grossman, 2008) and seed money (List and Lucking-Reiley,... View Details

Article

On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms

By: Natalia Rigol, Simone Schaner, Rohini Pande, Erica Field and Charity Troyer Moore

Can increasing control over earnings incentivize a woman to work, and thereby influence norms around gender roles? We randomly varied whether rural Indian women received bank accounts, training in account use, and direct deposit of public sector wages into their own... View Details

Keywords: Social Norms; Employment; Wages; Gender; Banks and Banking; Perception