It is common for charitable organizations to allow donors to place material restrictions on their gifts. Nonprofit firms and fundraisers generally believe that allowing gift restrictions will increase donation revenue. Restricted gifts are costly to the nonprofit firms because of increased...

In 1992, Maryland became the first—and only—state to require service activity of all public high school graduates. Proponents of mandates note that since individual volunteer activity is correlated over time, mandates will create lifetime volunteers. Prior studies demonstrate differences in...

Estimates of volunteering in the United States vary greatly from survey to survey and do not show the decline over time common to other measures of social capital. We argue that these anomalies are caused by the social processes that determine survey participation, in particular the propensity...

This article examines the influence of federal grants on nonprofit expenditure decisions. The topic is of particular concern for governments who wish to stimulate private provision of public services. Recent research shows that grants may inadvertently reduce private sector provision by causing...