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Private philanthropic support for government agencies continues to expand into different areas of public services, especially at the local level where libraries, parks and recreation departments, and police departments have benefited. The resources generated by a dedicated government-supporting nonprofit can play a significant role in enhancing the work of government, not only through resources, but through community engagement. In this article, we focus on police foundations, registered 501(c)3 nonprofits that exist to support police departments. Using NCCS nonprofit data and data collected from organizational websites, we create a database of 243 police foundations that identifies their mission statements, websites and activities, and the characteristics of the communities in which they are found across the U.S. In doing so, we argue that, rather than government failure or inadequacy to meet the needs of communities, police foundations are the result of isomorphism among professionalized police departments seeking to enhance their work and connection to the community. While funding for additional equipment and training are the most common activities of police foundations, the similarity in programs serving the community gives some indication of the proliferation of best practices in public safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing humanitarian assistance to displaced individuals is a critical policy challenge. Many refugee camps are run by charities supported by Western donors. If refugees are predominantly Muslim, might Islamophobia suppress donations to these charities? Using a survey experiment conducted in the United States, the authors examine whether donors' willingness to support a charity is influenced by the dominant religion of the refugees, the regions in which refugee camps are located, and/or the religious affiliation of the charity. The authors find modest support for Islamophobia: while willingness to donate is not affected by the location of camps or the predominance of Muslim refugees, it declines significantly for Islamic charities. Respondents overall tend to be especially willing to donate to a charity that serves Christian refugees in the Middle East. Among self‐identifying Christians, respondents are more willing to donate to a charity serving Christian refugees than one serving Muslim refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When making charitable donations, individuals would like to have some assurance that their resources will be used appropriately, but they do not necessarily have the time to research charities thoroughly. Charities have thus joined voluntary regulatory programs to signal trustworthiness and good governance. We conduct a survey experiment to explore if individual donors in the United States are more willing to give to a charity participating in a voluntary regulatory program. Because voluntary programs vary in their institutional design, we further test whether the provision of third-party auditing (to ensure that charities abide by program rules and obligations) enhances donor confidence in the voluntary program. Finally, we explore whether individuals seek to circumvent information problems by donating to local charities as opposed to overseas charities. We find that charity membership in a voluntary program does not influence people's willingness to donate significantly, but that location of operations is significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]