Mapping altruism

A great deal of work has been done to understand how science contributes to technological innovation and medicine. This is no surprise given the amount of money invested annually in R&D. However, what is not well known is that US science (R&D) investment is only one-sixth that of the annual revenue received by non-profit organizations (NPOs) in the US. The large majority of NPO revenues are devoted to the remaining landscape of altruistic causes – those not relying as heavily on scientific inquiry. Given this broader context, one might reasonably expect the non-profit world to have been as well characterized as that of scientific research. The unfortunate truth is that no map of altruistic missions and causes exists; the landscape of altruistic activity is virtually unknown. In this paper, we present the first maps of altruistic mission space. These maps were created using the text from websites of 125,000 non-profit organizations (NPOs) in the US. The maps consist of 357 topics covering areas such as religion, education, sports, culture, human services, public policy and medical care. The role of science in this altruistic landscape is examined. Possible applications are discussed.