TY - JOUR
T1 - Toward explaining congregational giving
AU - Finke, Roger
AU - Bahr, Matt
AU - Scheitle, Christopher P.
N1 - Funding Information:
Virtually all American religious groups rely on members for financial support. Lacking government subsidies and seldom heavily endowed, the local congregation relies on membership gifts for survival. Indeed, because all religious organizations seek financial resources from their members, and financial giving is one of the major costs of membership, both scholars and leaders have viewed religious contributions as a measure of organizational commitment worthy of explanation. Yet, until recently, this topic received relatively little research attention.
PY - 2006/9
Y1 - 2006/9
N2 - A series of research projects have identified the major correlates of financial giving to religious congregations, but a satisfactory explanation of congregational giving has proven elusive. We propose a theoretical model that shifts attention from the individual to the organization and is derived from a more general theoretical model of religious commitment. Testing the causal model with an expanded range of organizational measures and structural equation models, we conclude that congregational beliefs, requirements, and networks serve to mutually support each other in generating an exclusiveness that produces a high level of giving. When combined with size of congregation, income, and denominational affiliation the proposed theoretical model fits the data quite well and explains a high level of the variance.
AB - A series of research projects have identified the major correlates of financial giving to religious congregations, but a satisfactory explanation of congregational giving has proven elusive. We propose a theoretical model that shifts attention from the individual to the organization and is derived from a more general theoretical model of religious commitment. Testing the causal model with an expanded range of organizational measures and structural equation models, we conclude that congregational beliefs, requirements, and networks serve to mutually support each other in generating an exclusiveness that produces a high level of giving. When combined with size of congregation, income, and denominational affiliation the proposed theoretical model fits the data quite well and explains a high level of the variance.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2005.04.001
DO - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2005.04.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33747368009
SN - 0049-089X
VL - 35
SP - 620
EP - 641
JO - Social Science Research
JF - Social Science Research
IS - 3
ER -