This book describes the specific practices and customs of giving money, goods, and services within the Mexican, Guatemalan, Salvadoran, Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and African American communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It finds that, rather than giving large amounts of money to charitable organizations to distribute to strangers, people in these communities share their modest wealth with other people they usually know well.

The study suggests that the amount of giving by minorities may be roughly consistent with that of white America, relative to personal resources, but the forms and beneficiaries of minority giving may be quite different - giving to or helping needy individuals, families, and informal groups rather than the mainstream charities usually studied by researchers.