Understanding Motivations of Mega-Gift Donors to Higher Education: A Qualitative Study

Patterns of giving to higher education by individual donors have changed in recent years, with large gifts accounting for an increasing percentage of the total. In light of this shift, understanding the motivations of donors who make very large gifts, commonly known as “mega-gifts,” has become important. Efforts to explore these motivations run into access barriers. This article uses an innovative methodological approach to overcome this challenge. Drawing on the media coverage of mega-gifts, the authors create donor biographies and carry out qualitative analysis of these donor biographies to examine donor motivations and evolution in motivations. The article draws on the existing literature to synthesize a typology of donor motivations and uses this typology to categorize the motivations of mega-gift donors. The identification of additional subcategories under the broad category of impact is a significant contribution of this study and adds nuance to our understanding of mega-gift donors to higher education institutions.     

Gender Dimensions of Public Service Motivation

Feminist scholars of public administration have critiqued the dominance of masculine imagery in public administration theory and practice. However, public service motivation is one area of public administration discourse that contains both feminine and masculine imagery. Focusing on Perry's multidimensional public service motivation scale, the authors borrow from a range of social science literatures to contend that compassion is a feminine dimension of public service motivation, whereas attraction to policy making and commitment to public service are masculine dimensions. Data from a survey of public managers in state health and human service agencies reveal that women score higher on Perry's compassion subscale but also on attraction to policy making. No statistically significant gender differences were found on commitment to public service.