Document Type

Project

Publication Date

Winter 2016

Keywords

Alturistic behaviors and ideologies, Fundraising projects, Demographic predictors

Abstract

Through volunteering at Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services (DVSAS) and by analyzing a 2013 report by Kristin Anderson, I found that parking is an issue for clients accessing services at DVSAS. In an attempt to mitigate the situation, I fundraised to create a fund for clients to use to pay for their parking meters while at the downtown office. Donation boxes were out for a month at about ten different businesses. The total amount of money raised was $241.55. This is equivalent to more than 322 hours or 19,324 minutes of parking in the downtown area. After changing the money into quarters (barring that which was originally donated in dimes or nickels), it was officially donated to DVSAS. The fund is currently available for clients to utilize.

As a second part of this project, I used data from the General Social Survey (GSS) to determine demographic predictors of altruistic behaviors and ideologies. According to my analysis, political stance, religious affiliation, church attendance, age, marital status, income, education, and sex are the most important demographic factors to take into consideration when searching for individuals who behave or believe more altruistically. Though this of course changes with regards to the cause being advocated for, my study was unable to examine demographic predictors in relation to specific causes. The variation in independent variables’ relationships to each dependent variable (altruistic actions scale, altruistic ideology scale, and percent of income donated) offers limited insight into the fluctuations in predictions that may occur based on limiting the scope of the study.

Department

Sociology

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Altruism; Social surveys; Social indicators; Self-interest; Fund raising

Genre/Form

student projects; term papers

Type

Text

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Rights Statement

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

Additional Files
Margaret Herbert - Figure 1, Downtown Bellingham Parking.pdf (1875 kB)
Figure 1: Bellingham Downtown Parking Map
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