and practices of Chinese Americans living the San Francisco Bay Area. This type of study involves collecting in-
depth information from a small, carefully selected group of individuals. It is intended to reveal overarching themes
and patterns in the ways that members of this particular population thinks about the study topics. The findings are
not necessarily applicable to individuals of different ethnic backgrounds or who live outside the Bay Area. Also, the
small sample size precludes the use of statistical analyses. The strength of this method lies in the discovery process
and in the depth and breadth of the knowledge of the study topic at a conceptual level.
characteristics.
Community Foundation and the Chinese American Community Foundation. We then selected individuals who fit
into the following categories:
only people from Santa Clara County or only people born in the U.S.
open-ended questions asking the participant to reflect on their own philanthropy, followed by questions regarding
philanthropy in the overall Chinese American community in the Bay Area. The interview was conducted as a
conversation, so questions were asked when they made sense in the flow of the discussion rather than strictly in
order. The participants were encouraged to lead the discussion, while the interviewer made sure that all the topics
were covered. Most interviews were conducted by telephone, with a few conducted in person at the participant's
request. The interviews were recorded after obtaining the participant's permission. The recordings were transcribed
in preparation for analysis.
to be acknowledged by name in the final report. Twenty-four of the 33 participants agreed to be listed by name.
The goal of qualitative analysis is to identify themes, patterns, and linkages within and among the conversations
that shed light on the thoughts and perspectives of the participants. Analysis was conducted using the "Constant
Comparative Method."
information is being sought in advance (standard in quantitative research). Qualitative analysis requires immersion in
the data, ideally by more than one researcher, in order for the themes and patterns to emerge and take shape.
process involves assigning codes to sections of text in a process similar to highlighting text in a paper document
and writing a note in the margin. A list of the codes and their definitions was maintained and refined during the
analysis so that everyone coding the text used them in the same way. The text was then sorted by code and
reviewed for points of similarity or divergence, as well as new topics or concepts introduced by the participants.
a code to the responses for each question so they could be gathered into a new document and reviewed together.
New topics and concepts also emerged in this process, which then formed the basis for new codes. The interviews
were then reviewed again to find additional instances of the new code. The use of a software program such as
ATLAS.ti facilitates this process by automating search, coding, and retrieval of data based on the content of the text
or the characteristics of the participants. Data can also be sorted by subgroups of participants or by multiple codes
using Boolean operations (e.g., "and," "or," "not").
Writing up the results consists of summarizing the responses of the participants that have been assigned the same
codes to identify patterns and linkages. Direct quotes from participants that illustrate the theme are included,
analogous to the presentation of numerical data in tables for a quantitative study. In some cases, the quotes illustrate
agreement among the participants, and so may sound similar. In other cases, the quotes are intended to reflect
a diversity of opinion regarding a concept (i.e., code), in which case they may seem very different and even
contradictory. In the final report, the data are presented in a way that leads the reader through the analytical process
so that he or she will reach the same conclusion as the researchers. The researchers' interpretations are presented
in closing summaries regarding a given topic and in the conclusion of the report.