Regional differences in philanthropy

The practices and traditions of philanthropy vary strongly across the globe. From one place to another, such differences do not only relate to the size and nature of philanthropy, but also to the methods people use to give. Furthermore, regional differences do not only occur between countries. At a smaller geographic scale, contrasts can be found between states (Putnam, 2000; Bielefeld et al., 2005), provinces, regions and departments (CERPHI, 2010), municipalities (Bekkers and Veldhuizen, 2008), neighbourhoods and zip codes. Focusing predominantly on the contribution of money to nonprofit organizations, this chapter explores these regional differences. Alongside helping us to develop a better understanding of philanthropy, knowledge of any differences in giving also has practical relevance: it informs fundraising practices (Schneider, 1996). Nonprofit organizations, for example, use, often quite small scale, geographic criteria to segment their donor database and to select target groups of potential donors for fundraising campaigns (Sargeant et al., 2010: 160).