Mark Schuller, Northern Illinois University

Mark Schuller, PhD
Acting Director of the Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies, Presidential Research Professor of Anthropology, Northern Illinois University
Affiliate, Faculté d’Ethnologie, l’Université d’État d’Haïti

Crystal A. Felima
Assistant Professor of Anthropology and African American & Africana Studies
University of Kentucky

“Maintaining Hope for a Better Future:” An Interview with Dr. Crystal Felima

Dr. Mark Schuller, et. al.

Annals of Anthropological Practice, August 2023

Crystal Felima, Abigail DeeWaard, Clara Barbier, Erica Cano-Garcia, Gonzalo Jeronimo, Nari Coleman, Nataliya Hryshko, Mark Schuller

“This piece not only offers advice to students about how to maintain activist engagement within the academy, but I love how this is coming from students themselves. Undergraduate students have lots of amazing things to say! With proper encouragement students *can* publish in peer reviewed journals. I’m so inspired by them.”
–Dr. Mark Schuller

While anthropologists have played roles speaking out for marginalized groups, formalized to combat Antisemitism, racism, and xenophobia, they have also aided in the marginalization and oppression of communities, justified colonialism, and put the communities they have studied at risk. In recent decades, anthropologists have rethought the way research is conducted, presented, and justified to reduce harm to communities. Despite these shifts, anthropological training has been slow to include activist work by women of color and other marginalized people, leaving anthropologists-in-training with limited concrete guidance on how to apply their anthropological lens to social justice.

Addressing this gap, this article centering a Black feminist analysis offers an interview conducted between anthropology students and a professor of anthropology, giving insights into how anthropological thought can be applied to activism and advocacy. Centering Black feminism is not only important to redress historical marginalization within the discipline. By centering the lives of marginalized people within an intersectional lens, Black feminist analysis provides a mandate to rethink theoretical models, such as political ecology, the dominant frame anthropologists have used to address disasters and climate change. Also importantly, centering Black women’s bodies and embodied experience uncovers the urgent necessity for self-care during fieldwork. Prof. Felima embodies both these challenges, and offers candid advice to students, inspiring a two-way dialogue.

NACC Member Representative

Mark Schuller is Acting Director of the Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies as well as Presidential Research Professor of Anthropology at Northern Illinois University and affiliate at the Faculté d’Ethnologie, l’Université d’État d’Haïti. Supported by the National Science Foundation Senior and CAREER Grant, Bellagio Center, and others, Schuller’s research on NGOs, disasters, globalization, and gender in Haiti has been published in fifty peer-reviewed articles or book chapters as well as public media. He authored or coedited eight books including Humanity’s Last Stand. He is co-director / co-producer of documentary Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy (2009). Schuller is co-editor of Berghahn Books’ Catastrophes in Context and University of Alabama Press’ NGOGraphies. He is Co-Chair of the Risk and Disaster Topical Interest Group at the Society for Applied Anthropology and Secretary of the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology. Recipient of the Margaret Mead Award, the Anthropology in Media Award, and the Haitian Studies Association’s Award for Excellence, he is active in several solidarity efforts.

Irina V. Mersiyanova, Centre for Studies of Civil Society and Nonprofit Sector

Irina V. Mersiyanova
Associate Professor and Director
Centre for Studies of Civil Society and Nonprofit Sector, Head of the Chair Economics and Management of NPOs, National Research University Higher School of Economics

Global Generosity During the COVID-19 Crisis: Recommendations for Philanthropic Organizations and Governments in Times of Crisis from 11 Countries

Irina V. Mersiyanova, et. al.

IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, September 2023

Hampton, D., Wiepking, P., Chapman, C., McHugh, L. H., Kim, S. J., Neumayr, M., Vamstad, J. Arnesen, D., Carrigan, C., Feit, G., Grönlund, H., Hrafnsdottir, S., Ivanova, N., Katz, H., Kristmundsson, Ó. H., Litofcenko, J., Mersianova, I., Pessi, A. B., Scaife, W., Sivesind, K. H., and Yang, Y. (2023). Global generosity during the COVID-19 crisis. Recommendations for philanthropic organizations and governments in times of crisis from 11 countries. Indianapolis, IN: IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

“This study contributes to an increased understanding of philanthropy, especially in times of crisis, by studying the conditions under which such behaviors may be threatened or promoted across different countries and cultures.”  –Global Generosity in Times of Crisis Project – Executive Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique opportunity to undertake a cross-national study of how people living in different countries manifested generosity behaviors during the crisis. Cross-national data allow us to consider how generosity presented in countries with various welfare and health systems, as well as varying public and private responses to manage the effects of the pandemic. The present study also provides valuable insights about which actions philanthropic organizations and governments can take to promote a strong, viable social sector and to support societal wellbeing during times of crisis.

To this end, philanthropy researchers across 11 countries studied the generosity responses emerging in their own country during the early COVID-19 crisis in 2020. The 11 countries included in this project are Australia, Austria, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Norway, Sweden, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America. In 11 individual country reports, the researchers compared generosity behavior data for their country with data from the other participating countries.2 Second, they expounded what both philanthropic organizations and governments could learn from the findings, with the goal of facilitating people’s future generosity responses more effectively, especially during crises.

A survey of over 44,000 people across 11 countries showed a predominance of monetary donations to philanthropic organizations during crises, with notable variations in the beneficiaries of donations among different nations. Despite overall stability in giving compared to pre-pandemic times, the consistency was due to non-donors pre-pandemic continuing not to donate, while those who donated before were likely to either increase or decrease their donations during crises. Factors such as pandemic uncertainty or personal financial issues influenced some donors to decrease their donations, while paradoxically, others increased their generosity amid similar challenges. The authors advise philanthropic organizations to prioritize key actions to optimally support community needs during crises. More detailed information and specific recommendations can be accessed by reading the full text.

Dorothy Norris-Tirrell and Susan Tomlinson Schmidt

Dorothy Norris-Tirrell, PhD
Vice President of Programs and Research
Nonprofit Leadership Alliance

Susan Tomlinson Schmidt, ACNP
Content Specialist, Early Childhood Innovation Center
University of Missouri, Kansas City

Multiple disciplines and numerous theoretical foundations built the basis for study of nonprofit organizations. This article explores the disciplinary debate with data from the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance about the majors of students earning the Certified Nonprofit Professional (CNP) credential over the last 10 years. Our analysis suggests that with a focus on the competencies needed for practice, nonprofit education works in any discipline. Embedding a competency-based, applied pedagogy allows many disciplines to ensure successful outcomes for students.

Dorothy Norris-Tirrell, Ph.D., is the Vice President of Programs and Research for the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance – a national network of 50 universities and national nonprofit partners working to create a talented and prepared nonprofit workforce. In this position, Dr. Norris-Tirrell facilitates the development of programs to develop strong nonprofit leaders. Her previous experience includes over twenty years as a faculty member and administrator at the University of Memphis and the University of Central Florida. Dr. Norris-Tirrell’s teaching and research focused on nonprofit organization leadership, governance and resilience, volunteerism, and cross-sector collaboration. Her research is published in the book, Strategic Collaboration in Public and Nonprofit Administration, and in book chapters and journals including the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, American Review of Public Administration, International Journal of Public Administration, and the Journal of Health and Human Services Administration. Dr. Norris-Tirrell has extensive experience as an agency manager, board member, consultant, and volunteer for a wide range of nonprofit organizations.

For her work in connecting student learning, nonprofit agency needs, and academic knowledge, Dr. Norris-Tirrell received the 2009 University of Memphis Excellence in Engaged Scholarship Award, and the 2014 Don Pugliese Award from the Southeastern Conference for Public Administration. She received a Ph.D. in Public Administration from Florida International University.

Susan Tomlinson Schmidt has spent more than 30 years of her career advancing the missions of a variety of service organizations, by focusing on building capacity through partnerships with universities and their local communities.

Currently, Schmidt is a senior advisor to the Executive Director of the Early Childhood Innovation Center (ECIC) at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. ECIC is part of the Institute for Human Development. The Center supports a range of community-based programs that lift the quality of the early childhood workforce across the State of Missouri.

Previously, Schmidt was President of the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, a national network of professionals, nonprofit organizations, and universities building capacity in the nonprofit workforce. While there, she successfully introduced several key initiatives, Leaderosity, a robust, virtual professional development platform. Leaderosity trains as many 15,000 nonprofit professionals annually reaching across the globe to provide targeted training in nonprofit leadership. Schmidt’s leadership in converting the Certified Nonprofit Professional (CNP) program from an analog, B2B model to an innovative, virtual, B2C model increased access and affordability to earning the nationally recognized workforce credential.

She received her master’s in public administration from the University of Memphis and is an Advanced Certified Nonprofit Professional.