| The purpose of the study was to determine why major donors contribute gifts to the University of Utah and Brigham Young University. The study also determined whether major donors to the two universities donated to private religious higher education for the same basic reasons they made charitable gifts to public research oriented higher education. The hypothesis was that no significant differences would be noted in the motives of donor subjects. One hundred fifty donors of {dollar}100,000 or more to each institution were asked to rate the relative influence of survey motives on a scale of one to ten. The means of respondent scores were tabulated and Spearman Rank correlations computed. Significant consistency of correlation between the three studies was substantiated at the .01% level of confidence. The hypothesis could not be rejected. The study disclosed that respondents were most influenced by motives related to institutional mission, respect for the institution and its leaders, interest in specific programs, civic pride, religious considerations and tax incentives. Donors representing higher education samples recorded a higher consistency of correlation in gift motives than did education versus non-education donors. |
