social welfare research institute - Boston College

for Women Entrepreneurs, who posted our request on their list-serv, of the Women in
Technology International, who called us with suggestions for potential participants, and
of Andrea Kaminski, head of the Women's Philanthropy Institute, who made contacts for
us with suitable female respondents. As a final effort, we recontacted the women we had
initially emailed and again encouraged them to participate. Through these efforts we
obtained interviews with eight female high-tech wealth holders. The other women we
interviewed were spouses of two male high-tech wealth holders.
Apart from diversifying our sample by gender, we also took steps to diversify it
by geography. Our interviewees were initially concentrated on the West Coast, so we
deliberately tried to find participants on the East Coast. By searching the internet for
Massachusetts-based technology networks and by contacting a Boston-based nonprofit
whose mission is venture philanthropy, we found three more participants. In the end we
managed to cover many areas of the US: two respondents were based in Austin, two in
Atlanta, four in Massachusetts, two elsewhere on the East Coast, one in the Midwest, one
in Canada, and the remainder in California and Washington State.
In a project on high-tech philanthropy it was clear that no study would be
complete without interviewing some of the leaders and participants in the field of venture
philanthropy. The Morino reports and numerous media articles provided us with
potential contacts. We interviewed one venture philanthropist early on and asked him for
further contacts--this yielded three interviews. We also spoke to one more leader in
venture philanthropy. In all, five of the 28 respondents, and one of the co-participating
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