"The Science of Giving" and why I decided to apply for a doctoral course / 『寄付の科学』と博士後期課程に出願した理由

This is the book which gave me motivation to apply for a doctoral course.

"The Science of Giving: Experimental Approaches to the Study of Charity"



Edited by Dr. Daniel M. Oppenheimer and Dr. Christopher Y Olivola, this book features many topics on charitable giving from scientific point of view. Before I found this book in Google books, I was at a loss where to start my research on donor satisfaction. In Japan, there were (and are) surprisingly scarce search results about "寄付者満足度(donor satisfaction)". So I was strongly attracted by the article "Model of the Value of Giving to Others Compared to the Value of Having More for Oneself, Implications for Fundraisers Seeking to Maximize Donor Satisfaction" written by Dr. Michal Ann Strahilevitz.

I got an idea from this article that fundraisers can analyse satisfaction of donors by using value functions. For example, law of diminishing marginal utility should be considered when fundraisers accept major gifts. Of course, there are some basic assumptions to apply value functions in a real world setting.

I cannot help reading other articles on charitable/philanthropic giving and thinking about my research questions. Finally I decided to change my career partly and to apply a doctoral course in Graduate School of Management, Kyoto University while working as a fundraiser.

『寄付の科学』と題されたこの本は、私が博士課程に出願すると決めるきっかけになった本です。
"The Science of Giving: Experimental Approaches to the Study of Charity"



あまりに「寄付者満足度」という単語についての検索結果が少ない日本の現状を知って途方に暮れていたとき、この本が非常に大きなヒントをくれました。それ以来、他の論文を読み漁ることをやめられず、また自分のリサーチクエスチョンが頭から離れず、最終的にファンドレイザーとして働きながら博士課程に進むしかないと決断するに至りました。