Social Capital and Philanthropy: An Analysis of the Impact of Social Capital on Individual Giving and Volunteering

This article examines the impact of social capital on philanthropy. Based on extensive information on individuals’ embeddedness in various dimensions of social capital gathered in the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, two measures of social capital are extracted from the data via factor analysis. One relates to individuals’ associational networks; the second relates to their trust in others and in their community. These measures are then incorporated into models of religious giving, secular giving, and volunteering. The estimates confirm the importance of social capital in explaining the generosity of individuals. When social capital is included in giving equations, the direct influences of human capital (education) and religiosity fall, raising the question of whether previous understanding of their importance as determinants of giving and volunteering was overstated or, alternatively, whether the extent to which religion and education foster personal philanthropy by fostering associational networks and norms of trust and cooperation has been under-appreciated.