Voices from the Community: The Perspective of Nonprofit Organizations in Student Philanthropy Courses

Peter Weber

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

Erin Casolaro

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 |2024-08-20T21:43:17-04:00August 20th, 2024|NACC Member Research|
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What to Be (or Not to Be): Understanding Legal Structure Choices of Social Enterprises from a Resource Dependence Perspective

Latha Poonamallee

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 |2024-08-20T14:26:01-04:00August 20th, 2024|NACC Member Research|
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Funding Health Care for People Experiencing Homelessness: An Examination of Federally Qualified Health Centers’ Funding Streams and Homeless Patients Served (2014–2019)

Dr. Marcus Lam

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

Nathan Grasse

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 |2024-07-24T10:24:26-04:00July 24th, 2024|NACC Member Research|
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The Contributions of Community-Led Newspapers to the Resilience of Rio’s Maré and Rocinha Favelas During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Vanessa Guerra
Assistant Professor in Urban and Environmental Planning
School of Architecture
University of Virginia

Dr. Max O. Stephenson, Jr.

Dr. Max O. Stephenson, Jr.
Professor, Urban Affairs and Planning (UAP)
Director, Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance
School of Public and International Affairs
Virginia Tech

Desirée Poets
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Core Faculty of the Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought
(ASPECT) PhD Program

Molly Todd

Molly Todd
Teaching Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology and the International Affairs Program
University of Colorado Boulder

The Contributions of Community-Led Newspapers to the Resilience of Rio’s Maré and Rocinha Favelas During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Vanessa Guerra, Max Stephenson, Desirée Poets, and Molly F. Todd
Journal of Urban Affairs | June 2024

This article explores how two community-led newspapers in Maré and Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, promoted social resilience in their respective favelas during the first 6 months of COVID-19. We reviewed stories published in both newspapers and interviewed a sample of their journalists to investigate the newspapers’ responses to the pandemic’s effects, government policies (or lack thereof), and resident reactions to evolving virus-related risks during our study period. We employed Keck and Sakdapolrak’s social resilience framework to examine our data and found that the newspapers contributed significantly to the resilience of both communities during our study period. Contrary to the neoliberal view of resilience as self-reliance, these newspapers sought instead to encourage sustained collective agency and to challenge oppressive governance through generative activities and advocacy. Our findings deepen understanding of the role of community-organized activities in marginalized populations’ struggles to assert their right to the city, particularly during crises.

Vanessa Guerra is an assistant professor in Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture. She focuses her research, teaching, and practice on urban interventions that promote social inclusion and sustainable development in cities and regions. Her research interests include urban informality, urban resilience, inclusive cities, spatial justice, coproduction, and cognitive urbanism. Prior to her position at UVA, she served as a research associate and Interim Program Director of Rhizome LLC at Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture and Urban Studies and as a consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

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. 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.

Desirée Poets is Assistant Professor of Political Science and a core faculty of the Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought (ASPECT) PhD Program. Through ethnographically informed, creative, and collaborative methods, Poets has been working with urban Indigenous, favela, and maroon (in Portuguese, quilombola) communities and movements in Brazil’s Southeast Region since 2013. Her research focuses on settler colonial, postcolonial, and dependency theories in Latin America; urban (de-)militarization; arts, collective memory and community change, and questions of gender, ethnicity, class, and race.

Molly Todd is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and the International Affairs Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. She earned her PhD in 2023 from the interdisciplinary ASPECT program at Virginia Tech, where her research focused on community-engaged art and borders in the Americas. Her research employs collaborative methods across sites in Brazil, Mexico, and the United States to observe & participate in the ways that artistic production navigates and shapes border politics and their imaginaries. She has published several articles reflecting these efforts, as well as a chapter in the edited volume Maré from the Inside: Art, Culture, and Politics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (VT Publishing 2021).

By |2024-07-24T10:22:21-04:00July 24th, 2024|NACC Member Research|
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Nonprofit Human Resources: Crisis Impacts and Mitigation Strategies

Sarah L. Young

Sarah L. Young
Professor of Public Administration
Director of Research, KSU CARES
Kennesaw State University

Kimberly K. Wiley
Assistant Professor
University of Florida

Dr. Elizabeth A. M. Searing

Dr. Elizabeth A. M. Searing
Assistant Professor of Public and Nonprofit Management
School of Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences
University of Texas at Dallas

Nonprofit Human Resources: Crisis Impacts and Mitigation Strategies
Sarah L. Young, Kimberly K. Wiley, and Elizabeth A. M. Searing
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly | May 2024

This study empirically evaluates the relationships between the state and human service nonprofits’ human resources during a crisis. We employ qualitative content analysis to critically assess the experiences of 31 nonprofits that experienced the 2015 to 2017 Illinois Budget Impasse. We evaluated the nonprofits’ strategic human resource management implications through a resource dependency lens at three levels: micro-, meso-, and macro-. Human service nonprofits pull from a toolbox of strategies in surprising ways. Strategy choices were intrinsically linked to the impacts experienced by the individual workers (micro-) and organization (meso-). Micro-level impacts included additional emotional labor and reduced benefits, while meso-level impacts included loss of capacity and short-term planning changes. Finally, the sector-level impacts included a multipronged brain drain of the nonprofit human resource industry. The findings are helpful for nonprofit employees, managers, policymakers, and anyone concerned about the delivery of social services by nonprofits during crises.

Dr. Sarah L. Young, Professor of Public Administration at Kennesaw State University, serves as the Director of Research for CARE Services, a campus support program for students who have experienced foster care or unaccompanied homelessness. Her research uses systems-based approaches to study the intersection of nonprofit, public management, and equity, especially during periods of crisis. Dr. Young earned her Ph.D. from Florida State University’s Askew School of Public Administration and Policy and her M.B.A. in nonprofit management from the University of Tampa Sykes College of Business. She is the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Public Affairs Education and serves on the editorial board of Teaching Public Administration.

Dr. Kimberly Wiley researches the relationship between nonprofit organizations and their public funders as well as qualitative methodology. She is particularly interested in domestic violence advocacy organizations serving families and youth. Though, she also enjoys testing new qualitative methods on data like social media and television. She won several awards for her work on faculty sexual misconduct and nonprofits in crisis. Her scholarship has been published in Nonprofit Management & Leadership, Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Public Administration, Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work, and Public Policy & Administration.

Dr. Elizabeth A. M. Searing is an Assistant Professor of Public and Nonprofit Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Searing’s primary research focus is the financial management of nonprofit and social enterprise organizations, but she also conducts work on comparative social economy more broadly. She is an Associate Editor and editorial board member of Nonprofit Management & Leadership, and an editorial advisory board member at VOLUNTAS and the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management (JPBAFM). Her articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

By |2024-07-24T10:19:53-04:00July 24th, 2024|NACC Member Research|
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Teaching Spatial Data Analysis: A Case Study with Recommendations

Duncan J. Mayer and Robert L. Fischer, Mandel School
Dr. Robert L. Fischer

Dr. Robert L. Fischer
Grace Longwell Coyle Professor in Civil Society
Jack, Joseph, & Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
Director, Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development
Case Western Reserve University

Dr. Duncan Mayer

Dr. Duncan J. Mayer
Social Scientist and Statistician

Teaching Spatial Data Analysis: A Case Study with Recommendations
Nonprofit Policy Forum, Volume 15, Issue 1 (2024)

Learning from data is a valuable skill for nonprofit professionals and researchers. Often, data have a spatial component, and data relevant to the nonprofit sector are no exception. Understanding spatial aspects of the nonprofit sector may provide immense value to social entrepreneurs, funders, and policy makers, by guiding programmatic decisions, facilitating resource allocation, and development policy. As a result, spatial thinking has become an essential component of critical thinking and decision making among nonprofit professionals. The goal of this case study is to support and encourage instruction of spatial data analysis and spatial thinking in nonprofit studies. The case study presents a local nonprofit data set, along with open data and code, to assist the instructors teaching spatial aspects of the nonprofit sector. Pedagogical approaches are discussed.

Robert L. Fischer joined the Mandel School in 2001 as a senior research associate, became an associate professor in the tenure track in 2017, tenured in 2020, and full professor in 2024. He has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and generated more than $15 million in extramural grant funding as principal or co-principal investigator. Dr. Fischer has served as director of the MNO program since 2012 and teaches two courses in the program. He is the lead full-time faculty member teaching in the MNO degree program, and led the work to it being in the inaugural cohort of accredited nonprofit masters programs in 2019.

Additionally, Dr. Fischer served as co-director of the Center on Poverty and Community Development since 2005 and as director since 2022. He has also been an active member of the school’s steering committee, curriculum committee, budget committee, library committee and has served as chair of a standing committee on the faculty senate. He currently serves on the board of trustees of both the St. Lukes Foundation and the Woodruff Foundation in Cleveland. Dr. Fischer has been a generous institution-builder at the Mandel School and CWRU and a frequent contributor to the academy.

Dr. Duncan Mayer earned his Ph.D. in social welfare from the Mandel School in 2023. His dissertation is entitled, “Essays on Community-Organization Dynamics,” and Rob Fischer served as his dissertation chair.

By |2024-06-17T16:20:33-04:00June 17th, 2024|NACC Member Research|
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“The Interview Inspired, Shocked, and Moved Me:” Philanthropic Informational Interviews as a Pandemic Alternative to Service-Learning

Dr. Genevieve Shaker

Dr. Genevieve Shaker
Donald A. Campbell Chair in Fundraising Leadership
Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

Dr. Meng-Han Ho

Dr. Meng-Han Ho
Assistant Professor of Business Administration
National Central University, Taiwan

Dr. Chen Ji

Dr. Chen Ji
Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Administration
Louisiana State University Shreveport

“The Interview Inspired, Shocked, and Moved Me:” Philanthropic Informational Interviews as a Pandemic Alternative to Service-Learning
Genevieve G. Shaker; Meng-Han Ho; Chen Ji
Journal of Nonprofit Education & Leadership, Vol 14, Issue 1 (2024)

The COVID-19 pandemic upended college classrooms, challenging instructors to deliver classes differently while still seeking to achieve pre-planned goals. Service-learning instructors faced a quandary: discontinuing activities could compromise course integrity, but requiring service was impossible, impractical, or inappropriate. Creative solutions were needed. This study explored the learning outcomes from a replacement activity, the philanthropic informational interview, in a philanthropy general education class and asked whether it could generate outcomes similar to service-learning. Data were drawn from student reflections (n = 145) from nine online course sections between spring 2020 and summer 2021. Thematic analysis identified eight learning outcomes: engaging with social issues, nonprofit solutions to social issues, insights into nonprofits’ innerworkings, philanthropy as everyone’s responsibility, enhanced empathetic understanding, value-driven career inspiration, developing interview skills, and building career capacities. These outcomes align with research about service-learning and suggest that the philanthropic informational interview can be a meaningful alternative to service-learning in some situations.

Genevieve G. Shaker, PhD, is the Donald A. Campbell Chair in Fundraising Leadership and professor of philanthropic studies at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Professor Shaker’s research focuses on fundraising and fundraisers, philanthropy education, and higher education advancement. Emerging research interests include the roles and practices of fundraisers around the world. She is the lead editor of the fifth edition of Achieving Excellence in Fundraising (2022), a key educational resource for the field.

Meng-Han Ho, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Business Administration and an associate director at the Asian Institute for Impact Measurement and Management at National Central University, Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. from Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Her research focuses on social enterprises, social innovation, nonprofit management, and management education.

Chen Ji, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Louisiana State University in Shreveport. Her primary research focuses are nonprofit management and philanthropy. Her research encompasses various areas including social entrepreneurship, strategic management, and nonprofit financial sustainability.

By |2024-06-19T12:38:04-04:00June 17th, 2024|NACC Member Research|
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Endowment Funded Experiential Learning: Facilitating Student Engagement

Elise Lael Kieffer, Murray State University
Elise Lael Kieffer, Murray State University

Elise Lael Kieffer, Ph.D.
Program Director and Assistant Professor
Nonprofit Leadership Studies,
Organizational Communication and Leadership
Murray State University

Endowment Funded Experiential Learning: Facilitating Student Engagement
Journal of Nonprofit Innovation: Vol. 4: Issue 1, Article 4 (2024)

This article provides background information on the establishment of an endowment that serves specifically to provide experiential learning opportunities for students in and around the university. This case study may serve as a guide for higher education programs in the nonprofit discipline to promote both active philanthropy and learning for students.

This article provides an examination of student reflections following their participation in an endowment funded experiential learning opportunity with a hope of promoting this teaching method in other nonprofit and philanthropic educational programs. The results of this analysis assist in the development of greater understanding into how the experiential learning component affected student reflections from their time in NLS 305. Additionally, analysis reveals how students understood and interpreted the real-world impact of their grantmaking experience, in comparison to traditional classroom practice exercises.

Dr. Kieffer’s first love was musical theatre. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Jacksonville University (Florida). After graduation, she began a successful career as a performing artist on the East Coast and Midwest. She left performance to return to school for her Master’s in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management from Tennessee State University. After earning that degree she moved to New York and worked for an international humanitarian aid organization, specializing in fundraising. While her primary assignment was growing the base of individual donors, she is also remembered for the dramatic growth in funding coming from foundations and corporations under her leadership.

The next chapter in her nonprofit sector journey combined her passion for the arts with her growing commitment to strengthening community engagement and building sustainable organizations. She moved to rural Cumberland County, Kentucky, at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains to found the Burkesville Academy of Fine Arts (BAFA). This interdisciplinary arts education organization offering year-round arts education and performance opportunities for children was launched in rural South- Central Kentucky. BAFA found strong support through local youth serving organizations such as 4-H and the public schools, becoming an integrated part of youth development across the region.

With a long-time aspiration to play a role in the development of leadership and management capacity for those serving the community, in 2017 her family relocated to Tallahassee, Florida, for Dr. Kieffer to pursue her PhD at Florida State University. While studying arts administration, with a focus on nonprofit leadership and management, she focused her research on strengthening rural nonprofit arts organizations. During her academic journey, she has pursued scholarship and engaged in teaching across the leadership and management curriculum. Among her many professional awards, it is worth noting that she was recognized with the Emerging Scholar Award at the International Society on the Arts in Society in 2019, 2020, and 2021. In addition, she received the Emerging Scholars Award at the International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities, and Nations in 2021.

Upon receiving her Ph.D., Dr. Kieffer joined Murray State University as Program Director and Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Leadership Studies and Director of the Murray State Nonprofit Resource Center. Her textbook “Rural Arts Management,” will be released by Routledge in July.

By |2024-06-17T16:20:58-04:00June 17th, 2024|NACC Member Research|
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Individual and Interlinked SDGs: Higher Education Institutions and Metro Area Sustainability Performance

Ha B. Vien and Christopher S. Galik
Ha B. Vien

Ha B. Vien, MPA
Instructor of Record
Research Fellow @ Earth System Governance
PhD Student in Public Administration (2022-2026)
School of Public and International Affairs
North Carolina State University

Christopher S. Galik, PhD

Christopher S. Galik, PhD
Professor and Director
Sustainable Futures Initiative
Department of Public Administration
School of Public and International Affairs
North Carolina State University

Individual and Interlinked SDGs: Higher Education Institutions and Metro Area Sustainability Performance

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 2024

Recent scholarship has explored the role of higher education institutions (HEIs) in transitioning to a sustainable society, yet empirical questions remain regarding their impact on the sustainability of surrounding areas. This study aims to examine the correlation between HEIs’ sustainability actions and local sustainability performance. Using a linear regression model and principal component analysis, this research investigates the sustainability performance of 105 US metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) utilizing the US cities sustainable development goal (SDG) index, which includes 427 HEIs known for their sustainability efforts. The HEI sustainability performance score is calculated based on the QS sustainability universities ranking.

The findings reveal a mix of positive and negative associations between MSA and HEI sustainability performance, with individual and interlinked SDGs serving as proxies. These correlations encompass a wide range of goals, from economic aspects of SDGs 1 (No poverty), 2 (Zero hunger), 3 (Good health and well-being), 7 (Affordable and clean energy), and 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) to social aspects of SDGs 10 (Reduced inequalities) and 16 (Peace, justice and strong institutions), and socio-environmental aspects of SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production). The results suggest that while HEIs are associated with some aspects of community sustainability, there is potential for greater contributions across a broader array of sustainability measures.

The study highlights the need for further exploration to identify the causal mechanisms behind the associations between SDG measures and HEI sustainability performance, whether influenced by the institution, the individual, or both. Practically, this research indicates that HEIs could enhance their impact on community sustainability by expanding their contributions to a wider range of sustainability goals. Socially, the study underscores the connection between HEI sustainability actions and the attainment of societal goals, particularly in relation to SDGs 10 (Reduced inequalities), 12 (Responsible consumption and production), and 16 (Peace, justice, and strong institutions).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the correlation between HEI and MSA sustainability performance in the US through individual and interlinked SDG proxies. It provides novel empirical evidence demonstrating an association between HEIs and various aspects of community sustainability performance, contributing valuable insights to the ongoing discourse on sustainability in higher education and urban development.

Ha Vien is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Public Administration at North Carolina State University, US. She is currently a research fellow at Earth System Governance project. She holds an MPA from the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington, US. Her research interests include public administration and public policy, sustainability, SDGs, environmental/ energy policy, and environmental justice. More information can be found on her website at https://sites.google.com/view/havien or email at bvien@ncsu.edu.

Christopher Galik is a professor in the Department of Public Administration at North Carolina State University and Director of the University-wide Sustainable Futures Initiative. Galik joined NC State in August 2016 as a Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program cluster hire in Sustainable Energy Systems and Policy (SESP), and works to better understand the formal and informal institutions governing complex and emerging energy and environmental problems. He brings an interdisciplinary perspective to his work, leveraging expertise in institutional theory, economics, and the natural sciences to address energy and environmental management and policy challenges. Recent research includes an evaluation of institutional stability in environmental governance, the influence of historical transitions on the adoption of sustainable practices at the local level, and the contribution of voluntary actions to climate change mitigation objectives.

By |2024-05-21T10:26:09-04:00May 20th, 2024|NACC Member Research|
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Sector Theorists Should Consider How Social Values Determine Unmet Needs

Ruth K. Hansen and Gregory R. Witkowski
Dr. Ruth K. Hansen

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

Gregory. R. Witkowski

Dr. Gregory. R. Witkowski
Senior Lecturer on Nonprofit Management, Columbia University
Affiliate Faculty, National Center for Disaster Preparedness
Book Series Editor of Georgetown University Press “Philanthropy, Nonprofits, and Nongovernmental Organizations” Series

Sector Theorists Should Consider How Social Values Determine Unmet Needs

Reimagining Nonprofits: Sector Theory in the Twenty-First Century
Cambridge University Press, 2024

“Sector Theorists Should Consider How Social Values Determine Unmet Needs” is a book chapter in the volume, Reimagining Nonprofits: Sector Theory in the Twenty-First Century, published by Cambridge University Press in 2024. In this chapter, the authors explore how sociopolitical power manifests itself through for-profit, nonprofit, and public sector practices and policies. They write:

While there are differences between the sectors, socially constructed preferences and sociopolitical power supersede these differences, foregrounding the needs of people with economic, political, and social power and repeatedly leaving others’ needs unmet. Drawing on postcolonial theory, we argue that the dominant explanatory framework for the interaction of the market, government, and nonprofit sectors—Three Failures Theory—works best for those needs that society recognizes as important. The theory is often understood as explaining the provision of goods across society, but only illustrates how certain needs are met. On its own, it unconsciously reflects and reinforces the social constructions that deem the demands of some people as important and of others as irrelevant (e.g., Schneider & Ingram, 1990, 1993).

We take issue with the notion of “needs” that are taken for granted in Three Failures Theory. All needs are not the same, and some needs are recognized while others remain hidden. Gaps in provision are neither evenly spread nor random but correlate with societal values. In essence, groups who are “on the margins” of society are often ignored or exploited because of culturally ascribed characteristics. For the nonprofit sector, these groups represent a challenge and opportunity to show societal leadership and to engage with these needs.

In this chapter, we draw on both critical theory and social science to develop the Cross-Sectoral Bias Theory to understand which needs are likely to be met and which are likely to be excluded. We see Cross-Sectoral Bias Theory as an important supplement to the Three Failures Theory by explaining why some societal needs remain unmet. Social systems and perceptions, defined by those with power, affect the behavior of decision makers in all sectors, resulting in differing access to goods and services. By bringing critical theory into dialogue with the BIAS framework and Three Failures Theory, our interdisciplinary Cross-Sectorial Bias Theory offers a refined lens for understanding of how the three sectors define whose needs are met, and how.

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 “Applying a stakeholder management approach to ethics in charitable fundraising,” published in the Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing and “Gary Neighborhood House: Managing mission and uncertainty in the Civil Rights era,” in the edited volume Hoosier Philanthropy. She contributed the chapter “Theory in Fundraising,” to the new edition of Achieving Excellence in Fundraising, which was featured on Bill Stanczykiewicz’s First Day Podcast from The Fundraising School. Her research with Dr. Lauren Dula on fundraising appeal letters, supported by the AFP Foundation, is the subject of a recent article in Advancing Philanthropy.

Gregory R. Witkowski is a senior lecturer of nonprofit management and affiliate faculty at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness. He is the series editor of the Georgetown University Press Series “Philanthropy, Nonprofit and Nongovernmental Organizations,” which publishes books for scholars and practitioners. Witkowski has authored or edited three books: The Campaign State, German Philanthropy in Transatlantic Perspective, and Hoosier Philanthropy. He has also contributed additional chapters to prominent edited volumes and articles published in scholarly journals. His research focuses on both local interactions where the majority of philanthropic gifts go and on transnational giving, which add the complication of cross-cultural exchange. The Social Science Research Council, American Historical Association, German Academic Exchange, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the New York Public Library, Rockefeller Archive Center, and Columbia University have all supported Witkowski through grants.

By |2024-05-21T17:39:24-04:00May 20th, 2024|NACC Member Research|
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