Local Charitable Giving and Civil Society Organizations in Japan

This paper, using original survey data, examines the factors influencing individual giving behavior toward the organizations focusing on who gives what to which types of organizations, especially the local civil society organizations. The study finds that the variables regarding personal socio-demographic traits, experiences of local social participation, and an attachment to local society are statistically significant, but not the contextual effect such as size of city. In addition, it reveals various factors influencing giving behavior toward the neighborhood associations and incorporated NPOs. That is, it may denote there are different attributes between people who give to the neighborhood associations and people who give to the incorporated NPOs. Thus, further development of organizational forms may be considered for achieving better local governance and providing local public goods by the promotion of charitable giving from the enlightened residents.