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Women's Leadership in Philanthropy: an Analysis of Six Giving Circles Deborah A

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Women's Leadership in Philanthropy: an Analysis of Six Giving Circles Deborah A Antioch University AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive Student & Alumni Scholarship, including Dissertations & Theses Dissertations & Theses 2012 Women's Leadership in Philanthropy: An Analysis of Six Giving Circles Deborah A. Witte Antioch University - PhD Program in Leadership and Change Follow this and additional works at: http://aura.antioch.edu/etds Part of the Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Leadership Studies Commons, Psychology Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Witte, Deborah A., "Women's Leadership in Philanthropy: An Analysis of Six Giving Circles" (2012). Dissertations & Theses. 108. http://aura.antioch.edu/etds/108 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student & Alumni Scholarship, including Dissertations & Theses at AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations & Theses by an authorized administrator of AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP IN PHILANTHROPY: AN ANALYSIS OF SIX GIVING CIRCLES DEBORAH A. WITTE A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change Program of Antioch University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August, 2012 This is to certify that the Dissertation entitled: WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP IN PHILANTHROPY: AN ANALYSIS OF SIX GIVING CIRCLES prepared by Deborah A. Witte is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Leadership and Change. Approved by: Philomena Essed, Ph.D., Chair date Lize Booysen, DBL, Committee Member date Suzanne W. Morse, Ph.D., Committee Member date Angela M. Eikenberry, Ph.D., External Reader date Copyright 2012 Deborah Witte All rights reserved Acknowledgments There are so many people to acknowledge and thank. I wish to first thank my dissertation committee chair, Dr. Philomena Essed, who provided quiet yet confident guidance throughout the course of my writing this dissertation, always gently helping me to move forward in my writing and thinking. I wish to thank the other members of my committee, Dr. Lize Booysen and Dr. Suzanne Morse. Dr. Booysen provided a much-needed second voice to my chair’s helpful suggestions while Dr. Suzanne Morse, always a colleague, became a teacher also to me. I’d like to thank my outside reader, Dr. Angela Eikenberry, the foremost authority on giving circles. Having her on my committee was an extraordinary opportunity for me. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the other faculty of Antioch University who provided a welcome environment for learning. I’d also like to thank Dr. Virginia Hodgkinson, a leader in developing many of the important institutions and organizations supporting research on philanthropy, volunteering and nonprofit organizations, who mentored me through a year-long historical investigation of women’s role in philanthropy. It was one of the most rewarding years of my life. I am also especially thankful to the women who agreed to be part of this study. Without them and their willingness to share their thoughts and insights I would not have been able to write this dissertation on the topic of women’s leadership in giving circles. I am also mindful of the generosity of the many women and men who I met at several conferences and workshops through the course of researching and writing this dissertation. Their encouragement and enthusiasm for the topic kept me going. My colleagues at the Kettering Foundation, especially Dr. David Mathews, Dr. Estus Smith, and Dr. John Dedrick, provided so much more than simply financial resources. Through i their own commitment to scholarship over the years, they helped me to believe my own scholarly pursuits were possible and of value. And of course I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my family and friends. I had unending support from all of them. Most were sincerely interested in my work and would ask about my progress. Eventually, and even more importantly, they learned when to refrain from asking me about my work. I am grateful for their confidence in me and I know they share in my excitement as I complete this work. So many people had a hand in the completion of this work that I truly believe it was a joint effort though I take full responsibility for the scholarship presented here. Deborah Witte August 2012 ii Abstract Women have played an essential role in the development of philanthropy in the United States. While their giving behavior and financial contributions have been studied extensively, other aspects of their philanthropy—namely leadership—have not been documented as completely. The giving circle—a new trend within philanthropy where groups of individuals pool their money, and through educating themselves about issues in their community, decide together where to award their funds—provides an ideal case for this study, as the majority of giving circle members are women. In order to gain a better understanding of women’s leadership, focus groups were conducted with more than 35 members of six giving circles. This study asks the questions: What meaning, understanding, or insights about women’s philanthropic leadership can be derived from the experiences and perceptions articulated by members of giving circles? What definitions, models, or new articulations of leadership can be discerned? and What are the implication of the stories of leadership that members tell for the formation, growth, and sustainability of giving circles? A multimethod analysis of the focus groups reveals that these women identify leadership in three primary ways: leading through relationships; leading with a focus on impact and change; and leading to create civic capacity. It is the third frame—leading to create civic capacity—that holds the most promise for an expanded understanding and a clearer articulation of women’s leadership in philanthropy. The electronic version of this Dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments i Abstract iii Table of Contents iv List of Tables viii List of Figures viiii Chapter I: Introduction 1 Statement of the Issue 2 Purpose of the Study 6 Significance of the Study 7 Methodology for the Study 8 Limitations of the Study 9 Descriptions 10 Organization of the Study 10 Literature Review 11 Methodology, Epistemology, and Ethical Considerations 11 Data 12 Implications 12 Further Research 13 Chapter II: Literature Review 14 Leadership: An Introduction 14 Early Thinking About Leaders 14 Twentieth-century Theories of Leadership 17 Follett and Relational Leadership Theory 21 Modern Leadership Theory 23 Women’s Leadership Theories 26 The “Different from/Same as” Argument 29 Rethinking Leadership: Moving Towards a Twenty-first Century Leadership 36 Philanthropy: An Introduction 38 Women in Philanthropy 41 Emergence of Bureaucratized Philanthropy 44 Settlement House Movement 46 Emergence of Scientific Philanthropy, Foundations, and Nonprofits 48 Dominance of Scientific Philanthropy 51 Emergence of Social Movement Philanthropy 53 Women’s Funding Movement 55 The Nexus of Women’s Leadership and Philanthropy 58 Leadership Through Volunteering 59 Leadership Through Fundraising 61 Professional Staff Development and Leadership 61 Board Development and Leadership 62 Leadership Through Giving 62 Voluntary Associations and Leadership 63 Giving Circles 64 iv Toward Identifying Leadership in Giving Circles 67 Distributed Leadership 71 Grassroots Leadership 72 Gendered Grassroots Leadership 74 Chapter III: Methodology, Epistemology, and Ethical Considerations 78 Focus Groups Defined 79 Some Uses of Focus Groups 80 Strengths of Focus Groups 81 Why the Focus Group Method? 83 Focus Groups as Feminist 83 Issues of Voice 85 Issues of Hierarchy and Power 86 Issues of Language and Norms 87 Focus Groups as Social Groups 89 Importance of Context 90 Limitations of Focus Groups 91 Limitations of Sample Size 91 Limitations of Group Dynamics 100 Limitation of Narrative Analysis 102 Skype 103 Ethical Considerations 106 Identifying Giving Circles 107 Coding for Analysis 111 Chapter IV: Data 115 Giving Circle E 116 On Leadership 120 Giving Circle C 124 On Leadership 127 Giving Circle A 131 On Leadership 134 Giving Circle F 139 On Leadership 142 Giving Circle D 145 On Leadership 148 Giving Circle B 150 On Leadership 153 Absolute Frequency Measures 156 Chapter V: Implications 157 Implications for Leadership 157 Implications for Women’s Leadership: “Different from/Same as” Debate 158 Additional Implications 160 Twenty-first Century Leadership 162 Implications for Giving Circles 164 Implications of Frequency Measures 167 v Theme: Leading Through Relationships 169 Theme: Leading with a Focus on Impact and Change 173 Impact on Particular Nonprofits, Nonprofits in General, and the Community 174 Impact of the Giving Circle on the Individual Member 175 Emerging Theme: Leading to Build Community 177 Summary 186 Chapter VI: Further Research 188 More Lessons to Learn 188 Skype as an Interview Tool 192 Further Lessons for Leadership 193 Appendix 194 Appendix A: Focus Group Topic Guide 195 Appendix B: Survey For Giving Circle Participants 201 Appendix C: Letter of Invitation 202 Appendix D: Giving Circles and Leadership Focus Group Participant Consent Form 204 References 206 vi List of Tables Table 2.1 Leadership Topics Expressed in Literature on Giving Circles 68 Table 3.1 Some Uses of Focus Groups 81 Table 3.2 Strengths of Focus Groups
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