This study addresses critical gaps in cross-cultural philanthropy research by examining charitable giving in Taiwan and the United States. It identifies distinct empirical patterns through which individual characteristics are associated with voluntary giving across different institutional contexts. Utilizing propensity score matching, linear regression, and random forest analysis on nationally representative data, the study enhances ecological validity and offers a robust framework for cross-national comparison. Findings indicate that US giving is more individualized and evaluative, whereas Taiwanese giving is more socially embedded. The results provide theoretical and practical implications for culturally adaptive fundraising strategies. Overall, the study demonstrates how institutional contexts condition the relationships between individual characteristics and charitable giving, extending nonprofit research beyond Western contexts.

As large language model (LLM)-based agents increasingly engage with human society, how well do we understand their prosocial behaviors? We (1) investigate how LLM agents’ prosocial behaviors can be induced by different personas and benchmarked against human behaviors and (2) introduce a social science approach to evaluate LLM agents’ decision-making. We explored how different personas and experimental framings affect these AI agents’ altruistic behavior in dictator games and compared their behaviors within the same LLM family, across various families, and with human behaviors. The findings reveal that merely assigning a human-like identity to LLMs does not produce human-like behaviors. They suggest that LLM agents’ reasoning does not consistently exhibit textual markers of human decision-making in dictator games and that their alignment with human behavior varies substantially across model architectures and prompt formulations; even worse, such dependence does not follow a clear pattern. As society increasingly integrates machine intelligence, “prosocial AI” emerges as a promising and urgent research direction in philanthropic studies.

Nonprofit organizations play a crucial role in responding to humanitarian crises, making it important to understand what motivates volunteers and how they learn about volunteering opportunities. Drawing on functional theory as well as word-of-mouth and tie strength frameworks, this study examines volunteers’ motivations and information sources during the arrival of Ukrainian refugees in Hungary. Twenty-five semi-structured interviews with volunteers have been analyzed using thematic analysis with deductive and inductive coding. The findings show that values and protective motivations were the dominant drivers of volunteering, with career, social, and understanding motivations also present, whereas enhancement motivation was absent in the context of the emergency crisis. Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) was the main source of information, with volunteering opportunities spreading mostly through weak ties, whose recommendations were trusted and accepted without scrutiny. Volunteer recruitment in humanitarian crises should emphasize value-driven and protective motivations while utilizing eWOM and weak-tie networks to reach potential volunteers effectively.

Philanthropic organizations, as crucial intermediaries between the government and society, significantly contribute to public service delivery. This study examines how organizational features influence their effectiveness, especially exploring the impact of professional capacity and organizational resources. Based on the panel data of 259 philanthropic organizations in Shanghai from 2010 to 2022, we use two-way fixed effects models to examine the impact of professional capacity, financial scale, and annual income on public service delivery, as measured by the number of charitable projects, project expenditures, and the number of beneficiaries. The finding shows that professional capacity notably improves public service delivery. We also find that financial scale moderates the relationship, while annual income mediates it. The results advocate that policies should facilitate capacity building and resource support altogether to maximize philanthropic organizations’ contributions to public service delivery.

Foundations operate within external influences, requiring contextual factors to comprehensively assess their financial health. Our study investigates how political and economic environments—represented by political connections, accreditation evaluations, and the city of establishment—affect foundations’ financial health, measured by equity adequacy, operating margin, revenue diversification, and administrative cost ratio. We hypothesize that government connections enhance financial health by providing funding stability and regulatory legitimacy. These connections confer legitimacy, reflected in accreditation evaluations, which enhance public trust and attract diverse financial support. Thus, we propose that foundations with higher accreditation evaluations demonstrate stronger financial health. We further expect foundations in economically developed cities to exhibit stronger financial health due to more vibrant markets and networks. We use data on Chinese foundations, a legally defined category of nonprofits in China, alongside social associations (社会团体) and social service organizations (社会服务机构), and comparable to charitable nonprofits in the United States. Our findings reveal that politically connected foundations exhibit stronger equity adequacy, higher operating margins, and greater revenue diversification. Foundations with better accreditation evaluations show greater revenue diversification but weaker net asset accumulation. Foundations in developed cities report lower net asset accumulation and higher administrative costs. These results underscore that financial health cannot be fully understood through financial metrics alone; external political and economic environments provide essential context. Foundations should strategically align their financial and charitable activities with their external environments to achieve sustainable financial health.

The civil society organizations (CSOs) in Bangladesh that came into the limelight for their activities during the COVID-19 pandemic are relatively new. Their formation, platform building, support expansion, fundraising, and coordination took place within the virtual network. Moreover, this new generation of civil society is engaged in digital advocacy. Under these new circumstances, it has become important to undergo a systematic study on this new generation of CSOs. The present article has conducted a content analysis of the websites (105) and Facebook pages (20) of sampled CSOs that have registered with the NGO Affairs Bureau of Bangladesh from 2011 to 2021. Their digital activities have been analyzed under four broad headings, namely, information and transparency, participation, networking, and mobilization. It has been found that although a few CSOs have come into the limelight for their digital performance, 81% of the CSOs are not using any official website. CSOs that are active on digital platforms are mostly concerned with providing information about themselves rather than engaging in online advocacy or mobilization. Among the different types of CSOs, youth groups have been found to be the most active users of Facebook, whereas service-providing NGOs and environmental CSOs have been observed to be disinterested in utilizing the digital facilities. Though digital culture has already taken root in the socio-political and economic life of Bangladesh, the CSOs seem to be in a transitional phase of digitalization, and their efforts to advocate for and deliver services through the digital space are at an initial stage.

Third-sector organizations manage beneficiary, donor, and volunteer relationships through data-mediated systems, yet lawful basis selection is often treated as legal compliance rather than nonprofit governance. This article addresses that gap through conceptual governance analysis grounded in doctrinal interpretation of the Saudi Personal Data Protection Law. It argues that lawful basis selection can operate as a board-level accountability mechanism by allocating responsibility for purpose definition, discretion, excluded alternatives, stakeholder risk, and review. The article recasts basis selection as nonprofit governance and develops three connected outputs: a Decision Standard, a seven-step reasoning sequence, and a Purpose–Basis–Governance matrix that structure reviewable judgment across beneficiary, donor, and volunteer relationships.

Voluntary organizations as well as churches rely heavily on Christian volunteers, yet research on their motivation delivers conflicting answers and limited guidance. This paper applies a comprehensive (2,485 records screened) scoping review-based approach mapping 79 empirical studies (1989–2026) on Christian volunteer motivation across church and civil society projects. Using the UN Volunteers 2020 framework, we analyze (i) study designs, theoretical lenses, instruments, (ii) volunteer populations, and (iii) project settings. We identify three structural barriers to cumulative knowledge: heterogeneous and often implicit motivation concepts; an instrument–phenomenon mismatch that sidelines religious motives (notably through uncritical reliance on the Volunteer Functions Inventory); and systematic underreporting of key participant and context variables. These gaps account for much of the contradictory evidence and restrict its practical use. We outline concrete reporting and measurement standards to integrate religious motives into mainstream volunteering research and to improve evidence-informed management of Christian volunteers.

Informal volunteering remains underrecognized in both research and public discourse, partly due to two interconnected issues: an analytical focus on who volunteers and what they gain from volunteering, and persistent measurement challenges that make it difficult for respondents and researchers to define and identify informal volunteering. Both issues originate from frameworks of volunteering developed in the context of formal volunteering and the assessment of informal volunteering through the conceptual lens of formal volunteering, emphasizing individual benefits and organizational affiliation. This article argues for a shift in analytical attention from a volunteer-centered framework to a task-centered framework that focuses on what volunteers do and accomplish through volunteering. Such a task-centered framework contributes to volunteering literature by including recipients of volunteering, and by providing a framework to approach informal volunteering on equal terms with formal volunteering.

Waqf (Islamic endowment) has great potential to improve community welfare, reduce inequality, and contribute to higher national economic growth. However, low public literacy remains a major challenge. Stronger efforts are needed to enhance literacy, intention, and participation in waqf. In this context, technology plays an important role in modern society by shaping various aspects of daily life and decision-making, while also accelerating digital inclusion, which can support the adoption of waqf. This research aims to analyze the impact of the Roblox-based educational game, Giving Legacy, on Indonesian high school students’ knowledge and intention toward waqf. The study uses the theory of planned behavior as its underlying framework. Field experiments were conducted, and before-after questionnaires were collected during the Waqf Goes to School program in eight schools from September 2024 to February 2026. A total of 671 questionnaires were collected, and 520 valid responses were retained for analysis. Data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon test and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS SEM). A control group was included within this sample to further strengthen and validate the results. The study found that the game-based learning (GBL) intervention significantly improved students’ knowledge and intention toward waqf. The Wilcoxon test results confirmed a significant difference between pre- and post-test scores. Post-intervention PLS-SEM analysis showed that all variables, including attitude, were significant predictors of intention. These results highlight the potential of GBL to enhance both cognitive and attitudinal dimensions of waqf learning, supporting its use for engaging youth in Islamic philanthropy.

Volunteering, essential to sustaining many social and sporting enterprises, has declined in recent years. Understanding how to cultivate and sustain volunteer labor is critical to ensure their survival and for individuals and wider society to benefit from the positive effects of volunteering. parkrun is a free, weekly, timed 5 km walk/run held in public spaces, which has disseminated widely (operating in 23 countries) and sustained itself over a 20-year period despite being largely reliant on volunteers for its operations. As such, parkrun can offer insights into how to attract and retain a large volunteer workforce. There are over 500 parkrun locations in Australia run by local volunteer teams, supported by a network of volunteer “ambassadors” and a relatively small number of paid employees. Our qualitative study examines whether and why individuals occupying volunteer roles central to event coordination and organizational delivery identify with the organization, and how parkrun cultivates and benefits from identification. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 67 parkrun Australia employees and volunteers who coordinate events. We deductively analyzed interview data against key theoretical concepts of organizational identification. Our findings show a dynamic layering process of identification with local event collectives and the broader parkrun movement, highlighting the organizational benefits of being community-led. parkrun intentionally perpetuates its identity, which volunteers internalize, defend, and enact, drawing in a labor force to sustain the organization. Our findings can inform volunteer initiation and retention strategies for parkrun and other volunteer organizations.

This study examines how grassroots gender NGOs in China navigate online fundraising amid tightening regulations and declining external funding. Drawing on a longitudinal analysis of 463 crowdfunding projects by 124 gender NGOs on Tencent Charity, it shows how these organizations pursue gender equality under pressure from the state and the platform economy. The study identifies two interrelated strategies: (1) strategic conformity through issue reframing to ally with state agendas for algorithmic visibility and (2) strategic stealth in intersectional boundary-spanning, calibrating (in)visibility while leveraging cross-sectoral collaboration to sustain gender advocacy. These practices reflect how gender NGOs continually negotiate visibility, legitimacy, and autonomy. The findings suggest that digital philanthropy, rather than diversifying fundraising, often reproduces hierarchies of attention and access. Conceptualizing strategic stealth in intersectional boundary-spanning as adaptive, issue-expanding practices, this study deepens understanding of NGOs’ constrained agency and highlights platform governance as a key force channeling state priorities in civic fundraising.

This article examines how formal civil society organizations (CSOs) perceive and engage with informal actors in crisis management and investigates the relational dynamics that bind diverse actors in polycentric governance systems. Adopting a qualitative interpretivist epistemology, the study proceeds from the premise that social realities, including organizational relationships, legitimacy, and trust, are constructed through meaning-making and intersubjective understanding. Drawing on interviews, focus groups, and case studies with 53 CSOs across multiple European countries, the study employs a modified grounded theory approach, consistent with interpretivist traditions that prioritize contextual understanding over objective measurement. The findings reveal a clear divide among formal CSOs. One half dismissed informal actors as untrained risks requiring hierarchical control, reflecting a command-and-control orientation. The other half demonstrated a polycentric orientation, recognizing and legitimizing informal actors without attempting to absorb them. Where polycentric attitudes prevailed, relationships were characterized by four elements: trust built through recognition rather than hierarchy, flexibility in distinguishing specialized from transferable tasks, equality emerging through co-production, and temporality leveraged as a resource for adaptive, short-term cooperation. The article contributes to understanding the relational dynamics within polycentric crisis governance by specifying how these four elements are enacted in practice. In doing so, it helps operationalize polycentricity for crisis management, a contribution called for in the literature. From an interpretivist standpoint, these findings do not claim generalizable causality but instead offer a theoretically grounded understanding of how actors themselves make sense of, negotiate, and co-construct effective cooperation across organizational boundaries.

International nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) play a vital, yet contested, role in responding to global challenges. Do INGOs serve to advance the interests of grassroots social movements or temper demands as they bring popular voices into institutional power settings? This study focuses on how civil society in Spain engages with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 13 on climate action and argues that INGOs simultaneously provide voice for some and temper the message of others. The seemingly contradictory impacts can be understood by examining the interplay of institutional political opportunity structures and network relations. A transcalar examination reveals that Spanish environmental INGOs work in network coalitions with domestic environmental social movements developing common positions. While limited by domestic political opportunity structures, these relations are mutually beneficial. In contrast, transnational environmental social movements do not closely coalesce with INGOs due to their loose organizational structures and lack of specific policy positions.