Chair: Eric Miller, George Mason University

Donor-Advised Funds: The revival of workplace giving?
Eric Miller, George Mason University

Workplace giving has suffered a steady decline over the past decade, even as real wages has risen, unemployment has fallen, and consumer spending has exploded. Charitable contributions have risen as well, yet workplace giving has fallen. This paper seeks to reconcile these two trends and summarize why workplace giving has dropped. Additionally, the rise of donor-advised funds may offer a way to reverse this trend. The paper explores how DAFs have and might be used to spur workplace giving and proposes several models for consideration.

Getting Rich but Not Giving: How to Understand the Giving Puzzle in China
Qian Wei, The University of British Columbia

Past decades have witnessed phenomenal economic growth in China; however, in sharp contrast to this wealth expansion is, many people are still unwilling to give and there is a lack of civic spirit in Chinese society. According to the World Giving Index (2019), China is the world’s least generous country over the last ten years. Conventional wisdom provides substantial evidence for a positive relationship between income and level of charitable giving, but China represents a special case: while people are getting wealthier, they do not show a higher level of engaging in charitable giving. I call this the “giving puzzle”: in the soon-to-be largest economy in the world, why are people not willing to give even though they have better access to financial resources?