NACC Member Research Archives - Page 5 of 10 - Nonprofit Academic Centers Council

Critical Praxis and the Social Imaginary for Sustainable Food Systems

Dr. Max O. Stephenson, Jr.
Professor, Public and International Affairs and
Director, Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance
College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences
Virginia Tech

Critical Praxis and the Social Imaginary for Sustainable Food Systems
Max Stephenson Jr, Kim Niewolny, Laura Zanotti, Anna Erwin
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 2024

This article serves as the introduction and overview for a 14-article special issue of the academic journal Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems entitled “Critical Praxis and the Social Imaginary for Sustainable Food Systems.” According to the authors, Freire’s (1972) concept of critical praxis offers an illuminating frame to reconsider and reframe the epistemological and ontological assumptions and thinking that shape the current food system. His conceptual framework offers analysts a way to approach processes and practices dynamically; that is, in a fashion in which they are not only enacted, but also continuously theorized, evaluated, and reimagined as they evolve. The iterative character of that process highlights the importance of understanding the active operation of power and its implications for individual and collective agency. More importantly, it moves scholars beyond efforts to capture “what is happening” and toward identifying generative ways that interested stakeholders may participate actively in the creation of more just and sustainable food systems.

In the author’s view, this special issue of Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems resulted in a fruitful set of responses to this overarching challenge. As a group, these articles critically engage with various relevant onto-epistemic questions and frameworks. These include, among others, agroecology, regenerative agriculture, Black agrarianism, radical pragmatism, decolonizing strategies, and urban ecology. Collectively, these analyses question the dominant thinking in which today’s food systems are entrenched and highlight perspectives that can help to disrupt the dominant meta-narrative that is today driven foremost by efficiency and technology claims, and to explore policy interventions, justice centered strategies, community-engaged collaborative efforts, and the deep reflexivity that can reveal alternate ways of thinking. The analyses collected here call on food system scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to work actively toward realizing a future in which such structures and processes are ecologically and socially sustainable and equitable for all.

Access Full Publication

Dr. Max O. Stephenson, Jr. serves as a professor in the Virginia Tech School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA). With a distinguished career in public policy, civil society studies and public administration, he also serves as the Director of the Institute for Policy and Governance in Virginia Tech’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. He holds a Ph.D. in Government and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. Dr. Stephenson’s research interests include civil society, democratic governance and political agency, and social equity and social change, reflected in his extensive publication record and numerous academic contributions. He is recognized for his interdisciplinary approach, integrating constructs from political science, public administration, and community development to address complex social challenges.

By N.A.C.C.|2024-12-05T15:01:48-05:00December 5th, 2024|NACC Member Research|

Elizabeth J. Dale, Ph.D.
Frey Foundation Chair for Family Philanthropy
Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy
Grand Valley State University

Community Representation, COVID-19, and the Challenges of Shifting Grantmaking Power: How a Public LGBTQ+ Foundation Weighed the Options
Elizabeth J. Dale and Katie Carter
Georgetown University Press, 2024

This chapter, featured in Participatory Grantmaking in Philanthropy: How Democratizing Decision-Making Shifts Power to Communities, discusses how Pride Foundation, a public foundation serving the LGBTQ+ community, rethought its Community Grants Program as part of a broader institutional commitment to racial equity. It details what the transition away from a traditional, application-based grantmaking model looked like in real time during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and raises important questions for other foundations to answer when aligning their grantmaking with an equity lens. One of those questions is: Under what circumstances should established foundations explore and adopt alternative approaches to grantmaking such as participatory grantmaking and trust-based philanthropy? This chapter discusses how Pride Foundation ultimately adopted a trust-based philanthropy approach, which centers mutually accountable relationships between funders and grantees and shifts power away from funders to consider grantees’ needs.

Learn More

Elizabeth J. Dale, Ph.D., joined the Johnson Center in September 2024 as the second holder of the Frey Foundation Chair for Family Philanthropy, the world’s first endowed chair for family philanthropy. She previously held a faculty position and directed the Nonprofit Leadership Program at Seattle University and was the Visiting Eileen Lamb O’Gara Fellow in Women’s Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Dr. Dale has authored or co-authored more than 20 publications and reports for both scholarly and practitioner audiences, which have been published in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing, Voluntary Sector Review, The Foundation Review, Philanthropy and Education, and several prominent edited volumes. Her scholarship has focused on social justice philanthropy, women’s giving and giving to women’s and girls’ causes, LGBTQ+ philanthropy, and couples’ charitable giving, as well as gender and the fundraising profession. Ultimately, Dr. Dale seeks to understand the power and potential of philanthropy, the role of identity in giving, and the role of philanthropy in contributing to a more just, equitable, and inclusive society.

By N.A.C.C.|2024-12-05T14:57:56-05:00December 5th, 2024|NACC Member Research|

Dr. Ruth K. Hansen
Assistant Professor, Nonprofit Management
Director, Institute for Nonprofit Management Studies
College of Business and Economics
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Who Will Spare a Dime? Impulse Giving Decisions at the Checkout
Lauren Dula (Binghamton University, SUNY) and Ruth K. Hansen
Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs, 2024

Campaigns asking for donations at the checkout of retail stores through rounding-up, donating an amount, or purchasing a token are becoming ubiquitous. The concept of “checkout charity” is really one of impulse giving, i.e., a prosocial activity done under time constraints. Industry reports inform us how much money the corporate campaigns are generating, but we have yet to develop a philanthropic profile of an “impulse giver” or compare them with traditional donors. Using the social heuristics hypothesis, this research helps us to better understand impulse giving and the individuals who engage in it. Women, the middle class, and those who are married or divorced were all more likely to give at the register. In contrast with formal giving, education levels had little relation to giving, and those approaching and over 50 years old were less likely to give. Familiarity with the charity and being Black or African-American correlate with greater amounts donated.

Ruth K. Hansen, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s College of Business and Economics, and director of the Institute for Nonprofit Management Studies. She teaches classes in nonprofit organizations, fundraising, organizational behavior, and research methods. Her research focuses on the theory and practice of fundraising, and equity and inclusion in resource mobilization. Dr. Hansen has more than 20 years’ professional experience as a fundraiser, and is a former board member of AFP-Chicago. Recent publications include “Sector theorists should consider how social values determine unmet needs,” with Gregory Witkowski, published in the volume Reimagining Nonprofits: Sector Theory in the Twenty-First Century (2024), edited by Eva Witesman and Curtis Child, and “Who will spare a dime? Impulse giving decisions at the checkout” with Lauren Dula, in the Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs. Her article with Lesley Alborough, “Reframing fundraising research: The challenges and opportunities of interpretivist research practices and practitioner researchers in fundraising studies” was a 2023 Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing Editors’ Choice. She is honored to be recognized with her colleague Dr. Lauren Dula as a 2024 AFP Early Career Emerging Scholar for their research on philanthropy and fundraising.

By N.A.C.C.|2024-12-09T09:09:52-05:00December 5th, 2024|NACC Member Research|

Roseanne M. Mirabella, PhD
Associate Professor
College of Business and Public Management
Kean University

Angela M. Eikenberry, PhD
Professor and School Director
School of Public Policy
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
University of Connecticut

Angela R. Logan, PhD
NACC President
St. Andre Bessette Academic Director
Master of Nonprofit Administration
Associate Teaching Professor
Mendoza College of Business
University of Notre Dame

Heather Carpenter, PhD
Executive Director
Institute for Nonprofit Administration & Research
Associate Professor, College of Arts and Sciences
Louisiana State University Shreveport

Elizabeth J. Dale, PhD
Director and Associate Professor
Nonprofit Leadership
Seattle University

Katherine Prendella
Doctoral Student
School of Communication and Information
Rutgers-New Brunswick

Handbook of Critical Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizing and Voluntary Action: Concepts, Applications, and Future Directions
Eds. Roseanne M. Mirabella (Kean University, US), Tracey M. Coule (Sheffield Hallam University, UK), and Angela M. Eikenberry (University of Connecticut, US)
Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024

In August 2024, Edward Elgar Publishing released the Handbook of Critical Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizing and Voluntary Action, edited by Roseanne M. Mirabella (Kean University) and Angela M. Eikenberry (University of Connecticut), alongside numerous contributors, including NACC member representatives Angela R. Logan (NACC President), Heather Carpenter, and Elizabeth J. Dale. (For a full list of editors and contributors, click here).

This insightful Handbook brings together leading and emerging scholars within the field of nonprofit organization, serving as a call to action for academics to interrogate key contemporary issues such as backsliding and authoritarianism. It meticulously distinguishes traditional, often marginalist perspectives from nuanced counterarguments to balance out the field.

The Handbook of Critical Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizing and Voluntary Action illustrates opportunities and challenges for future researchers within the sector and presses the reader to imagine a better, more equitable future. Chapters employ a variety of vital theoretical lenses, for example utilizing postcolonial theory, critical feminist theory, queer theory, critical disability theory and post-structural theory. They provide a timely, inter-contextual narration of the many roles enacted by nonprofit and voluntary organizations today.

Approaching nonprofit organizing as an ever-expanding topic, this crucial Handbook will be an important read for scholars of critical management studies, public administration, and public policy. It will additionally benefit researchers within the philanthropic studies field hoping to gain insight into the future of their discipline.

Below, we feature chapters from the volume authored by some of our NACC member representatives, highlighting their contributions to this publication. We would also like to share that in addition to editing the volume, Dr. Mirabella also co-authored a chapter, “Neocolonialism’s Perpetuation of Institutional Life of Disabled Individuals through the Rhetoric of Philanthropy and Charity,” with her daughter, Katherine Prendella (Doctoral Student, Rutgers-New Brunswick).

The Nature of Critical Global Civil Society Scholarship: Reviewing the State of the Art 1972-2021
Angela M. Eikenberry, Jennifer Dodge, and Tracey M. Coule

This chapter examines global civil society scholarship published in three key field journals—Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, and Voluntas—with particular attention to the most critical work originating from or focusing on countries outside the more commonly studied (“Western,” white) Anglosphere and European context. The 65 articles identified converge around two major areas: problematizing meanings of civil society concepts and practices, and problematizing assumptions about relationships. Within these themes, scholars emphasize the importance of context and political economy; societal transformation and development, democratization, and emancipation; and debates about what is the best way to study civil society in ways that uphold epistemic justice —a global South-informed unified approach, or a more contextualized country or region approach. Finally, it is noted that articles still seemed limited in their use of epistemologies and theories from parts of the world outside of the Anglosphere and Europe.

Decolonizing Nonprofit, NGO, and Development Higher Education: Valuing Indigenous Knowledge in the Majority World
Roseanne M. Mirabella, Heather Carpenter, and Ibrahim Shafau

This chapter challenges the hegemony of the Minority World over higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Minority World and proposes recommendations to decommodify higher education, refocus curricula and pedagogical approaches to challenge global inequities and neocolonial domination, empower communities to resist hegemonic discourses, and remove the veil of cultural blindness. By reviewing the major influences on HEIs generally and the application of these discourses in the case of nonprofit and nongovernmental organization education particularly, the authors highlight the ways in which future nonprofit and nongovernmental organization leaders are steeped in the language of development, development theory, and development studies, further solidifying the grip of the Minority World on the Majority World. They provide alternative structures and processes to challenge and reconfigure Minority World hegemonic practices underscoring the value of alternative frames that prioritize voices, perspectives, and understandings of stakeholders from the Majority World.

The Racialization of Philanthropic and Nonprofit Organizations: A Critical Analysis of White Supremacy and Economic Injustice in the Sector
Angela R. Logan and Maureen Emerson Feit

Philanthropic organizations, and the nonprofits that rely on philanthropic giving, are built upon a vast and persistent racial wealth gap in the United States. In this chapter, the authors call for intentional and sustained attention to intersections of race and class in the dynamics between organized philanthropy and nonprofit organizations. Combining scholarship on elite philanthropy with critical theories of structural racism, they argue that systems of unearned white advantage have simultaneously fueled organized philanthropy and muted the philanthropic contributions of communities of color. They examine how interactions between organized philanthropy and nonprofits facilitate the racialization of these organizations as spaces that center the interests of white donors and encourage the reproduction and reinforcement of racial inequality in core functions of nonprofits. Finally, they consider the implications of the perpetuation of white supremacy in the sector and offer avenues for transformation in policy, research, and practice.

Burn it to the Ground: Queer Theory, (Hetero)normativities, and Binaries in Nonprofit Organizations
Seth J. Meyer, Elizabeth J. Dale, and Kareem K. M. Willis

In this chapter the authors use queer theory, a critical theory that questions heteronormative understandings of society, to challenge normalized definitions and concepts in nonprofit organizations. They advance alternative and arguably more emancipatory interpretations of nonprofit organizations by ‘queering’ some of the traditional binaries that structure how we organize and operate nonprofit organizations and their work. They begin by queering the definition of what constitutes a nonprofit organization and discuss how compulsory heterosexuality manifests in organizations. They critically investigate four binaries, including the relationship between donors and beneficiaries, funders and grantors, employees and clients, and the organization and community, and argue for more fluid, power-sharing relationships. Throughout their analysis, they show how queer theory can be integrated into nonprofit scholarship and generate new questions with which to investigate the nonprofit sector.

Neocolonialism’s Perpetuation of Institutional Life of Disabled Individuals through the Rhetoric of Philanthropy and Charity
Kate Prendella and Roseanne M. Mirabella

This chapter utilizes critical disability theory, voluntourism studies, and neocolonial theory to discuss how the actions of philanthropists and nonprofit organizations from the Minority World have perpetuated the global marginalization and displacement of children, particularly disabled children. Tying the resurgence of orphanages to recolonization, the authors explore the role of these neoliberal institutions as sites of violence towards and control of disabled bodies. They explore the ways in which the charity rhetoric of disability popularized through media intersects with and abets the orphanage industrial complex supported by and dependent upon voluntourism, describing the ways in which the orphan tourism industry depends upon the exploitation of children to fuel its financial needs. Recognizing the toll that this system exacts on children, particularly children with disabilities, they end with a call for recognition and action to challenge and demolish this system of oppression and stigmatization centering the needs of children in this discourse.

Roseanne M. Mirabella, Ph.D. is member of the faculty of the College of Business and Public Management at Kean University. She conducts research on philanthropy and nonprofit and nongovernmental education and critical perspectives on nonprofit organizing. She has authored or co-authored many papers on nonprofit and nongovernment organization education and one co-edited book “Reframing Nonprofit Organizations: Democracy, Inclusion and Social Change” exploring the ways in which nonprofit management education programs can prepare students both to lead organizations as well as for their important role as advocates for the communities they serve. She is co-editor of the recently published Handbook of Critical Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizing and Voluntary Action one of the first major surveys of critical scholarship within the field. She is past President of ARNOVA and the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and is currently a member of the leadership team of the Critical Perspectives Section of ARNOVA.

Dr. Angela M. Eikenberry is Professor and Director in the School of Public Policy (SPP) at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on the social, economic and political roles of philanthropy, voluntary associations, and nonprofit organizations in democratic governance. Empirical and theoretical areas of research include giving circles and collaborative giving, marketization of nonprofit organizations and philanthropy, social enterprise, democracy and social equity/justice areas related to nonprofits/philanthropy, and critical social theories.

Dr. Eikenberry’s work appears in dozens of peer-reviewed books, journal articles and book chapters and has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and The Takeaway, and in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Her book, Giving Circles: Philanthropy, Voluntary Association, Democracy won CASE’s John Grenzebach Research Award for Outstanding Research in Philanthropy. She also received a Fulbright Scholar Award to conduct research on giving circles in the UK, the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus-wide Awards for Distinguished Research or Creative Activity and Outstanding Graduate Mentor, and the 2023 NVSQ Best Paper Award. She is past President of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) and a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Before coming to UConn SPP, Dr. Eikenberry was a Professor serving in several leadership positions at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, including as Chair of the School of Public Administration doctoral program and President and Grievance Officer of the UNO AAUP. She also helped found and run the nonprofit organization, Mode Shift Omaha.

Angela R. Logan, Ph.D. is an Associate Teaching Professor and the St. Andre Bessette Academic Director of the Master of Nonprofit Administration in the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. In her role as Academic Director, she provides leadership to the team that oversees both formats of the Master of Nonprofit Administration degree, and as a member of the College’s Department of Management and Organization, she teaches core courses for both programs as well. Professor Logan’s honors and distinctions include the inaugural Notre Dame Faculty Black Excellence Award (2023) and the MNAR Outstanding Professor Award (2023). Prior to joining the College in 2013, Angela has over 25 years of experience in higher education and philanthropy, with a particular focus in the areas of education and diversity. Over the course of her career, she has served as the Program Officer for Education at The Harvest Foundation (Martinsville, VA), the Director of the Bonner Scholars Program at Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH), and the Director of Multicultural Affairs and the Admissions Counselor / Coordinator of Multicultural Admissions at Defiance College (Defiance, OH). Her research focuses on the intersection of gender, race, faith, and nonprofit and philanthropic leadership.

Dr. Heather Carpenter is a highly networked nonprofit professor, researcher, consultant, and trainer passionate about nonprofit capacity building and talent development. She has served as a nonprofit professor and academic program director for over ten years and a nonprofit leader for over 20 years. She serves as Executive Director of the Institute for Nonprofit Administration and Research at LSU Shreveport. INAR’s mission is to conduct research and disseminate knowledge about nonprofit organizations. It has three programmatic areas: academics, professional development, and research.

She has published numerous academic journal articles and books. She previously served as co-editor and chief of the Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership was on the board of the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council the national accrediting body for nonprofit academic degree programs from 2017-2023. In 2022, the Nonprofit Times selected Dr. Carpenter as a Top 50 Power and Influence Nonprofit Leader.

Dr. Carpenter is a lifetime member of Girl Scouts, active in the Downtown Shreveport Rotary Club, and serves on the advisory committee for the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce Leadership Program. She was recently named to the Volunteer Louisiana Commission by the Governor, the state service commission that has a mission to “Strength Louisiana communities through volunteerism and national service.” Her husband is a Navy Veteran and Captain at Spirit Airlines, and they have a 13-year-old daughter.

She earned her Ph.D. in Leadership Studies with an emphasis on Nonprofit and Philanthropic Leadership from the University of San Diego and a Master of Management in Nonprofit Administration from North Park University in Chicago, Illinois.

Elizabeth J. Dale, Ph.D. is program director and associate professor in Nonprofit Leadership at Seattle University. A former development director and Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE), her research interests include social justice philanthropy, giving among women and LGBTQ+ donors, and the intersection of gender and philanthropy. She has presented her research nationally and internationally and has provided commentary for The New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and The Guardian. She completed her Ph.D. in Philanthropic Studies at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and women’s and gender studies from Ohio Wesleyan University and a master’s degree in women’s studies from The Ohio State University.

By N.A.C.C.|2024-10-17T09:58:32-04:00October 10th, 2024|NACC Member Research|

Reynold V. Galope, PhD, MPP
2023-2024 American Evaluation Association (AEA) MSI Fellow
Associate Professor of Public and Nonprofit Administration
MPNA/MPA/MNLM Graduate Program Director
College of Community Studies and Public Affairs
Metropolitan State University

Nice Data, Now Show Me the Human Story Behind These Numbers!
Reynold V. Galope, PhD, MPP
AEA365 blog post, 2024

Can data alone tell the complete story of a program’s impact? In his recent AEA365 blog post, “Nice Data, Now Show Me the Human Story Behind These Numbers!”, Dr. Reynold Galope challenges evaluators to think critically about the relationship between quantitative data and the lived experiences of program participants. He reflects on how his approach to program evaluation has evolved, particularly through his engagement with Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation (CREE), where the limitations of numbers are often brought into sharp focus.

Dr. Galope emphasizes that while data such as Average Treatment Effects (ATE) are valuable, they can mask disparities and fail to capture the complex, intersecting identities of program beneficiaries. To truly understand a program’s effectiveness, evaluators must go beyond the numbers and delve into the stories and experiences of the people behind them. This human-centered approach allows for deeper insights into program mechanisms and outcomes, providing a more holistic understanding of how well a program serves diverse communities. Dr. Galope’s blog encourages readers to reconsider traditional methods of evaluation and adopt a more inclusive perspective.

Read the Full Blog Post Here

More about the AEA MSI Fellowship

The American Evaluation Association’s (AEA) MSI Fellowship is designed to bring together faculty from Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) for professional development, networking, and training in evaluation and research. The program seeks to increase participation from underrepresented groups in the evaluation field, offering participants workshops, webinars, and mentoring to broaden their understanding of evaluation as a profession. Additionally, the fellowship aims to enhance evaluation activities at MSIs, orient students to evaluation careers, and encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration and writing. For more details, visit AEA MSI Fellowship.

More about Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation (CREE)

Culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE) requires the integration of diversity, inclusion, and equity in all phases of evaluation. CREE incorporates cultural, structural, and contextual factors (e.g., historical, social, economic, racial, ethnic, gender) using a participatory process that shifts power to individuals most impacted. CREE is not just one method of evaluation, it is an approach that should be infused into all evaluation methodologies. CREE advances equity by informing strategy, program improvement, decision-making, policy formation, and change.

Rey Galope is an Associate Professor in the College of Community Studies and Public Affairs (CCSPA) at Metropolitan State University (Saint Paul, MN), where he teaches program evaluation, policy analysis, economic reasoning, and applied research methods and statistics to public and nonprofit professionals, including data and policy analysts, program evaluators, and social change advocates.

Rey received his Ph.D. in Public Policy from Georgia State University (Andrew Young School of Policy Studies) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (School of Public Policy) as a Fulbright Scholar and his Master of Public Policy (MPP) from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore (NUS) as a Temasek Scholar. His graduate training in econometrics and quantitative methods influenced much of his prior program evaluation work. His evaluation of the certification and additionality effects of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, a federal program that co-finances R&D with promising small businesses, used propensity score matching to improve homogeneity between treated and untreated groups, and his most recent work investigating the impact of online teaching on student learning exploited a natural experiment to make the ignorability of treatment assignment assumption more plausible.

By N.A.C.C.|2024-10-10T16:31:42-04:00October 10th, 2024|NACC Member Research|

Dr. Ji Ma
Assistant Professor in Philanthropic and Nonprofit Studies
RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service
LBJ School of Public Affairs
The University of Texas at Austin

Why Do Some Academic Articles Receive More Citations from Policy Communities?
Dr. Ji Ma and Yuan (Daniel) Cheng
Public Administration Review, 2024

In this article, the authors (1) present the landscape of the citations of Public Administration and Policy (PAP) scholarly articles in policy documents and (2) examine influencing factors along three dimensions: collaborative teams, cross-disciplinary interactions, and disruptive paradigms. Using data from the 30 most-cited PAP peer-reviewed journals and 38,062 documents from 1107 policy institutions, they find that 10.1% of all PAP scholarship receives high citations from both academics and policy communities. Collaborative teams, cross-disciplinary interactions, and disruptive paradigms can all increase the citations within policy communities, yet the relationships are not linear. Nonacademic authors can consistently attract more policy citations, whether publishing alone or collaborating with academics. According to the paper’s abstract, an article should ideally cite no more than 13 disciplinary subjects. No significant trade-off between scholarly and policy impact as scholarly citations and the academic reputation of authors often translate into policy citations. These findings offer novel and concrete insights into optimizing academic research for policy impact.

Dr. Ji Ma focuses on the nonprofit sector and data science. He studies why and how social relation matters in social and economic behaviors. His research interests include: impact of social relation on social, political, and economic behaviors; education and knowledge production in nonprofit and philanthropic studies; open data in policy studies; computational social science research methods.

Ji has a Ph.D. in Philanthropic Studies at Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, with a Ph.D. minor in Data Science at IU School of Informatics and Computing. Before joining LBJ School, he worked at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard as Research Fellow. Ji has received numerous national and international awards, including Ford Foundation China Fellowship, Emerging Scholar Award from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, and Penn Summer Doctoral Fellows from the University of Pennsylvania. He also has a diverse industrial experience: he was a social entrepreneur, a consultant of business management, and a journalist.

By N.A.C.C.|2024-10-10T15:16:50-04:00October 10th, 2024|NACC Member Research|

Emily Brandt, PhD
Adjunct Professor
The University of Texas at Arlington
Program Manager, Business Development
Center for European Policy Analysis

Core Values in Public Administration and Policy: Three Levels of Evaluation in the Public Sector
Dissertation, Doctor of Philosophy in Public and Urban Administration, Summer 2024

This dissertation is composed of three separate but interrelated papers that examine the role of core values in public administration and public policy and how they show up at the societal, bureaucratic, and individual levels to inform the identification of the use of values, engaging proper awareness of how these values impact public sector actions, and how individuals can engage the right values frameworks in the face of conflict in various public and public service contexts. The first paper takes a societal look at core values via a systemic literature review on American morality policies; policies that inspire great debate not because of their intrinsic value, logically based reasoning, or data-informed decisions, but instead focus on the symbolic messages these policies convey to a polity about what core values are held in higher esteem by a society. The second paper analyzes where bureaucrats believe the locus of ultimate responsibility for change lies after they publicly contest a policy’s enforcement, compliance, or regulation on the grounds of moral and ethical considerations. Finally, the third paper proposes a conceptual definitional framework of morally conscious decision-making; a concept that can be used by individual public administrators to make values-based decisions when facing a dilemma, to ensure moral engagement in public sector work. Together these three papers help illustrate the influence of core values on public policy and administrative issues.

Emily Brandt is an adjunct professor at University of Texas at Arlington and a Program Manager at the Center for European Policy Analysis. She recently completed her doctoral degree in Public Policy and Public Administration from the University of Texas at Arlington, and previously earned her Master’s Degree from the University of North Texas in International Studies. She has spent the past 10 years working at international development nonprofits on programs focused on promoting democracy, human rights, and governance primarily in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Her work has been published in Administration and Society, and she has two forthcoming articles exploring bureaucratic objection in the media and codifying societal values in public policy.

Dissertation Advisors

First Advisor: Alejandro Rodriguez, PhD
Second Advisor: Emily Nwakpuda, PhD
Third Advisor: Karabi Bezboruah, PhD

By N.A.C.C.|2024-08-26T13:09:56-04:00August 26th, 2024|NACC Member Research|

Peter Weber, Ph.D.
Associate Professor in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies
Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies Coordinator
College of Human Sciences
Auburn University

Erin Casolaro
Harbert College of Business
Auburn University

Claire Simpson
College of Human Sciences
Auburn University

Portia Johnson, PhD
Assistant Professor/Extension Specialist
Consumer & Design Sciences

Voices from the Community: The Perspective of Nonprofit Organizations in Student Philanthropy Courses
Peter Weber, Erin Casolaro, Claire Simpson, Portia Johnson
Journal of Public Affairs Education, July 2024

This paper investigates the perspective of community members engaged with experimental learning in student philanthropy courses. While most scholarship explores the impact that student philanthropy practices have on students’ learning process and the overall effectiveness of these courses, this study aims to understand the impact of student philanthropy courses on community partners. We rely on a survey and focus groups to assess the perspectives of both nonprofits that participated in student philanthropy courses and nonprofits that decided against participating. We find that nonprofits see relational and advocacy benefits in participating in these courses, beyond the most obvious potential benefit of being awarded a grant. While we found overall satisfaction with the course, we also identified barriers to participation, which informs a list of practical recommendations. This study points to the possibility to better student philanthropy processes and improve the experience of participating nonprofits.

Peter Weber is an associate professor of philanthropy and nonprofit studies and program coordinator of the Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies (PNPS) Program at Auburn University, and currently holds the Mike and Leann Rowe Endowed Professorship in International Studies. He holds a doctorate in Philanthropic Studies from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, as well as a Master in History and a Master in International Studies in Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship, both from the University of Bologna in Italy. His research focuses on the way individuals participate in public affairs through voluntary organizations and philanthropic practices. His latest research project investigates the emergence of philanthropic innovations through the lenses of program-related investments (PRIs) by private as well as community foundations. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, including Voluntas, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Journal of Civil Society, Nonprofit Policy Forum, Global Society, Journal of Public Affairs Education, and Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Murray State University, and Auburn University. Among others, his teaching interests focus on grant-making practices, nonprofit management and governance, nonprofit advocacy and public policy, and community engagement. In recognition of his service to the field of nonprofit studies, he was recognized by the 2013 ARNOVA Emerging Scholar Award and selected as a Future Philanthropic Educator Fellow by the Learning by Giving Foundation (2015). At the national level, he serves as the VP of governance on the board of the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council (NACC), which is the international membership organization of nonprofit and philanthropic research centers and education programs.

Erin Casolaro is a recent graduate of Auburn University with degrees in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies and Accounting. She is a current Master of Accountancy candidate at Auburn University. Throughout college she has worked to bridge her accounting and nonprofit passions through research and internships at the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Geographic Society, and RSM. She was awarded an Undergraduate Research Fellowship during her time at Auburn.

Claire Simpson is an undergraduate student at Auburn University, expected to graduate in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Science in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies and a Business Minor. Her dedication to academia is reflected in her consistent placement on the Dean’s List and her recognition as a Kappa Omicron Nu Human Sciences Honor Society inductee. She has conducted impactful research as an Undergraduate Research Assistant, collaborating on projects such as the Alabama FAST Initiative, where her interests in philanthropy, nonprofit studies, and finance intersect.

Dr. Portia Johnson is an Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist with a joint appointment with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and the Department of Consumer and Design Sciences at Auburn University. She earned a Ph.D. in Financial Planning, Housing & Consumer Economics from The University of Georgia, bachelor’s from The University of Georgia, and a master’s in business administration from Arizona State University. Johnson’s research agenda includes household financial well-being and education, post-secondary access, and sustainable homeownership. Johnson has published 10 academic peer-reviewed articles, and 38 extension articles and briefs. She’s given over 60 presentations at conferences and public forums and received $1.5M in grants. Johnson has received numerous state, regional, and national awards for her applied research and community extension educational programming, including being named National awardee for the New Professional Award by the past Presidents of National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences for her contributions to Cooperative Extension.

By N.A.C.C.|2024-08-20T21:43:17-04:00August 20th, 2024|NACC Member Research|

Latha Poonamallee
Associate Professor of Management and Social Innovation
Chair of Management Programs
Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment
The New School

What to Be (or Not to Be): Understanding Legal Structure Choices of Social Enterprises from a Resource Dependence Perspective
Simy Joy, Latha Poonamallee, and Joanne Scillitoe
Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, 2024 | First published online: October 29 2021

Choice of legal structures is a key decision that social enterprises make early in their lives. The range of options now includes not only the traditional for-profit and non-profit structures, but also the new hybrid structures. Viewing legal structures primarily as ‘governance mechanisms to support the mission’, the current social enterprise literature regards ‘mission’ as the normative basis for legal structure choices. Empirical work in the non-profit and social enterprise literatures, however, surfaces another salient, yet under-theorised concern driving legal structure choices, namely resources. In this paper, we aim to develop resource dependence perspectives as an alternate theoretical lens to understand legal structure choices. In this study of 14 New York based socio-tech enterprises, we uncover how, in an interplay of resource needs, autonomy and legitimacy concerns, legal structures emerge as strategic tools to attract the external resource providers that the social enterprises want to form resource relations with and avoid the ones they are wary of. Our findings contribute to advancing the notion of legal structures as a ‘vehicle for resource mobilisation’, and to lay the foundations for a resource dependent framework to examine social enterprise legal structure choices.

Dr. Latha Poonamallee is a tenured Associate Professor of Management & Social Innovation and Chair of the Faculty of Management at the Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment & School of Undergraduate Studies, and University Fellow at The New School.

She works on two major research areas both focused on how management, organizations, and leadership can be vehicles to create a more sustainable, prosperous, just, and equitable world.

She serves as Editor in Chief of the Society of Advancement of Management Journal, a preeminent journal that has been published for over 75 years. She also received a Fulbright Scholarship to assist Botswana government, USAID, and Botswana Civil Society in developing a nation-wide social entrepreneurship ecosystem.

She is also the co-founder and Chairperson of In-Med Prognostics, a neuroscience firm that uses AI and Deep Tech to develop brain health predictive analytics. This firm has received accolades such as the Falling Walls Conference (Germany), BIRAC grant (Government of India grant), and GE Health Care’s Edison Startup Collaboration Venture.

Dr. Poonamallee received her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Case Western Reserve University, M.B.A. from Pondicherry University, and B.A. and M.A. from University of Madras.

By N.A.C.C.|2024-08-20T14:26:01-04:00August 20th, 2024|NACC Member Research|

Dr. Marcus Lam
Associate Professor
School of Leadership and Education Sciences
Department of Leadership
University of San Diego

Dr. Nathan Grasse
Associate Professor
School of Public Policy & Administration
Carleton University

Funding Health Care for People Experiencing Homelessness: An Examination of Federally Qualified Health Centers’ Funding Streams and Homeless Patients Served (2014–2019)
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 21(7) | June 2024

Abstract
It is estimated that three million people annually experience homelessness, with about a third of the homeless population being served by Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Thus, FQHCs, dependent on government funding for financial viability, are vital to the infrastructure addressing the complex issues facing people experiencing homelessness. This study examines the relationship between various government funding streams and the number of homeless patients served by FQHCs. Data for this study come from three publicly available databases: the Uniform Data System (UDS), the IRS Core files, and the Area Resource File. Fixed-effects models employed examine changes across six years from 2014 to 2019. The results suggest that, on average, an additional homeless patient served increases the expenses of FQHCs more than other patients and that federal funding, specifically Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) funding, is a vital revenue source for FQHCs. We found that the number of homeless patients served is negatively associated with contemporaneous state and local funding but positively associated with substance use and anxiety disorders. Our findings have important implications for the effective management of FQHCs in the long term and for broader public policy supporting these vital elements of the social safety net.

Introduction
Homelessness is an intractable issue that requires interventions at multiple levels. At the macro level, public policies and elected officials are critical to driving government funding and public opinion to bring awareness to the homelessness problem and the subsequent consequences of inaction. At the micro level, interventions by social workers and medical professionals that help homeless persons find shelter and receive health care are critical to short-term survival and care. At the meso level, community-based not-for-profit organizations (NPOs) that employ medical professionals, social workers, and other frontline workers are an often overlooked but essential component of the multi-pronged solution to providing vital health, social, and shelter services to people experiencing homelessness.

Marcus Lam’s research focuses on identifying strategies for the sustainability of health and human service nonprofit organizations. Specifically, his program of research advances two interrelated domains: 1) the effect of organizational and environmental factors on nonprofit sustainable resources and 2) the influence of resources on organizational programs, services, and client outcomes. Prior to joining SOLES, Dr. Lam was on faculty at the Columbia School of Social Work in New York City. Dr. Lam has also served as a senior research associate at the UCLA Center for Civil Society and has published reports on the state of the nonprofit sector in Los Angeles, the state of arts and culture funding in Los Angeles, as well as methodological chapters in the Global Civil Society Yearbook. He has also held fellowship positions with the Nonprofit Finance Fund, Los Angeles Program and EMES European Research Network on social enterprises and the social economy.

Nathan Grasse is an Associate Professor in the Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership (MPNL) program at Carleton University. He holds a Bachelor of Science (BS), a Master of Public Administration (MPA), and a PhD in Political Science, all from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, United States. His academic focus primarily revolves around the governance of public-serving organizations, highlighting the connections between governance and financial management. This encompasses a detailed study of revenue structures, the influence of organizational and environmental factors, and how strategic choices impact financial health and other organizational outcomes.

Dr. Grasse’s expertise includes nonprofit finance and financial management, governance and leadership, and strategic management. He emphasizes the critical role of charities in addressing social issues, enhancing representation, and delivering services in communities. Recognizing the challenges these organizations face in financial management and governance, particularly due to a reliance on historical or anecdotal information, his work aims to expand knowledge in these areas. This focus is vital for the effective management of charitable organizations, providing them with more robust frameworks and guidelines to improve their decision-making processes.

By N.A.C.C.|2024-07-24T10:24:26-04:00July 24th, 2024|NACC Member Research|

Previous 456 Next