The Science of Generosity – Phase II

The Science of Generosity at Notre Dame seeks support to extend and enhance the impact of the research conducted during its first grant period. This Phase II grant has two parts: a communications program and a Notre Dame Research program. This grant involves a much smaller monetary request. Pre-Initiative, the pressing research concerns around generosity were: understanding how people learn to be generous, the consequences of generous behavior, identifying causal mechanisms of generosity with multiple methods, and integrating existing knowledge to the scientific community, professionals, and general public. The 19 projects we funded in the Initiative met many of these needs, and our communications efforts show us that our research is very relevant for professionals. Funding the communications program would ensure that Science of Generosity research reaches various targeted publics that can most benefit from the research findings: non-profit, philanthropic and charitable foundations, churches and religious service organizations, NGOs, and public policy centers. We will use consultations, workshops, presentations, webinars, publications, and conferences to disseminate findings to relevant publics. International interest has helped us create a large network of researchers who regularly use our website resources. Our website clearly provides a gravitational center that attracts the attention of researchers and professionals. A second grant will allow us to disseminate our research, especially to organizations that act as liaisons between academic and professional communities and directly serve civil sectors. The NDR component has generated a large and useful survey dataset that promises to be of interest to generosity researchers in the social sciences beyond scholars who are directly involved and/or funded. A second grant would allow us to publicize and manage the NDR survey data set to facilitate a wider range of empirical investigations by many scholars.