Correspondence: Patrick Rooney, Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University IUPUI, 550 West North Street, Suite 301 Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA. Phone: +1 317 278 8908; Fax: +1 317 278 8999; Email: rooney@iupui.edu

¹is the Director of Research at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and a Professor of Economics and Philanthropic Studies at IUPUI. His research focuses on giving and volunteering behaviors of households, corporations, and foundations, as well as nonprofit management issues such as fundraising and overhead costs, compensation practices, and best practices in the nonprofit sector.

²received her Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 1981. She is currently the James Irvine Professor of Economics at Pomona College, where she has taught since 1986. Her research centers on the economics of personal philanthropy, volunteer labor, nonprofit organizations, and resource allocation within the family. She is an officer of the Association for the Study of the Grants Economy, a professional association that promotes economic research on altruistic behavior and voluntary unilateral resource transfers. She has been a deputy editor of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, the scholarly journal of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, since 1998. She is also an active member of the International Society for Third-Sector Research, serving as co-chair in charge of submissions on the theme of volunteerism for the group's biennial conferences in 2002 and 2008 and in 2006 as a member of its Nominating Committee. Professor Brown's research on giving by married couples draws upon theories of household bargaining to identify characteristics of couples that help to explain who in a couple exercises decision-making authority.

³is Associate Professor of Nonprofit Management and Philanthropic Studies at IUPUI. She received her Ph.D. and M.B.A. at Indiana University, Kelley School of Business. Her research focuses on issues of civic engagement, volunteer motivation and management, executive compensation, diversity, and race and gender issues in giving and volunteering. Prior to teaching at IUPUI, she has held faculty positions at Simmons College and Northeastern University.

Received 26 July 2007; Revised 26 July 2007.

Abstract

Using data from the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study and the Panel Study on Income Dynamics, we analyzed whether husbands or wives were more likely to determine whether and how much money to donate to educational institutions. Among donor households, we are able to examine what socio-economic-demographic factors explain differences in whether men or women are more likely to decide to give to educational institutions. We also compare the "who decides" question for education to who decides about giving overall. We find that after controlling for other factors in multiple regression analyses, the educational attainment of both spouses is positively associated with increased giving to education, as is the number of children living at home, family income, and wealth (excluding home values). The age of the husband does not matter but there is a positive association with the age of the wife and amounts given to education. Men have little or no influence on the decision to give to education at all or the amounts donated to education. Conversely, women decision-makers are more likely to have a positive effect on both the likelihood of giving to education and the amounts given to education.