The influence of wealth on philanthropy: A cross-regional study

Abstract

Abstract Even in situations when welfare state budgets can be considered generous, many socially responsible, beneficial activities remain that cannot survive without the financial support of private individual or corporate donors. The article seeks an answer to questions of to what extent the willingness to donate one’s own money depends on wealth and income, and what the role of other socio-cultural factors is. The data about the amount of private and corporate donations in particular regions of the Czech Republic in the period of the years 2011–2015 is compared with data about the regional economic prosperity and income. The regression analysis results show that it was only possible to explain to certain level the amount of donations by the rate of the wealth of firms and individuals in particular regions. In case of the companies, it is a medium-strong correlation, while the correlation is strong in terms of individuals. Particularly in terms of the corporate donation, the willingness to donate is significantly related also with other, non-economic factors in the region.