Fall 2019

Fall 2019 Presenters

September 17

Philanthropy Research Workshop: Rich Steinberg Rich Steinberg, Professor of Economics and Philanthropic Studies, IUPUI

"Reflections, Past and Future"

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Abstract: As the just-retired creator of the Philanthropy Research Workshop and its progenitor, Workshop In Multidisciplinary Philanthropic Studies, I reflect briefly on what has been accomplished in the first 13 years of the seminar. Then I talk about my new coauthored book, Economics for Nonprofit Managers and Social Entrepreneurs (Dennis R. Young, Richard Steinberg, Rosemarie Emanuele, and Walter Simmons, 2019), with a focus on how new research can fill in gaps in our understanding regarding the managerial economics of the nonprofit sector.

Bio: Rich Steinberg is Professor of Economics and Philanthropic Studies at IUPUI, joining the then Center on Philanthropy in 1991. He has served as co-President of ARNOVA, on the editorial boards of NVSQ and NML, and on the governing council of the Aspen Institute Nonprofit Sector Research Fund. At IUPUI, he was Chair of the Faculty in Philanthropic Studies and proposed and helped to implement the Philanthropy Panel Study. He coedited The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook (Second Ed.) and edited The Economics of Nonprofit Enterprises. He engages in experiential learning and helps build social capital through dramatic performances in local community theaters, where he is also a member of the Board and Chair of the Capital Campaign for the Westfield Theatre.

September 24

Alnoor Ebrahim, Professor, The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tisch College of Civic Life, Tufts University

"Measuring Social Change: A Strategic Perspective"

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Abstract: A core strategic challenge facing leaders in the social sector is performance measurement. How can they track and improve performance towards worthy goals such as reducing poverty, improving public health, or advancing human rights? What results can they reasonably measure and legitimately take credit for? This book tackles three fundamental challenges of performance faced by social enterprises and nonprofit organizations alike: what to measure, what kinds of performance systems to build, and how to align multiple demands for accountability. It develops a contingency framework with four different types of strategies for managers to consider—niche, integrated, emergent, and ecosystem—and details the types of performance measurement and accountability systems best suited to each. Finally, this book examines the roles of funders such as impact investors, philanthropic foundations, and international aid agencies, laying out how they can best enable meaningful performance measurement.

Bio: Alnoor Ebrahim is a Professor of Management at Tufts University. His work addresses two strategic challenges facing social change organizations: How should they measure and improve their performance? How should they address competing demands for accountability from diverse stakeholders? These questions are addressed in his new book, Measuring Social Change: Performance & Accountability in a Complex World (Stanford University Press, 2019). Professor Ebrahim has served on advisory boards to the Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (IRIS), Acumen’s Lean Data Advisory Council, and on a working group established by the G8 to create global guidelines on social impact measurement.

October 8

Marlene Walk, Assistant Professor, Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, IUPUI; Affiliate Faculty, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IUPUI

"Formal and Informal Volunteering by Immigrants: The Importance of Migration Status & Language"

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Abstract: Volunteering by immigrants is viewed as an untapped resource for civil society, adding diversity and multiculturalism to civic life. Volunteering offers immigrants multiple cultural, economic, and personal benefits and thus has positive implications for their social integration. Yet, knowledge on the more intricate behaviors and mechanisms underlying immigrant volunteering is at its infancy. In this paper, we critically elaborate on the notion of who is an ‘immigrant’ and what is considered ‘volunteering’ for newcomers in a host country. Particularly, we explore variation on migrant status between native-born individuals and 1st and second generation immigrants. We further acknowledge that volunteering is not a monolithic construct by focusing on both formal and informal volunteering. We draw on the 2014 wave of the German Survey on Volunteering, a representative sample of the German population, with 83 percent native-born, 7 percent second generation and 9.5 percent first generation immigrants. Findings indicate that first and second generation immigrants differ in their formal volunteering behavior from native-borns. Second-generation immigrants and native-born individuals show similar levels of informal volunteering, while first generation immigrants still have a reduced probability to informally volunteer. Among recent immigrants, we find that lack of language skills inhibited formal volunteering but not informal volunteering. By considering a more nuanced approach to migration status, this study sheds light on the question of integration of immigrants, especially those who do not possess sufficient language skills, and also highlights the importance of informal volunteering as important contribution to civic life.

Bio: Marlene Walk is an Assistant Professor at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI. Her research interests are human resource management, volunteering and volunteer management as well as the impact of organizational change on employees and volunteers. Marlene received her PhD from the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.

October 23

Timothy M. Rainey II, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Religion at Emory University

"Beyond the Shadow of Destiny: Religion, Freedom, and the Rise of Economic Pan- Africanism in the Age of Paul Cuffe, 1807–1817"

Abstract: "Beyond the Shadow of Destiny: Religion, Freedom, and the Rise of Economic Pan- Africanism in the Age of Paul Cuffe, 1807–1817," focuses on histories of black Americans who migrated to Freetown, Sierra Leone to cultivate a market in African goods and counter the trade in African bodies. Believing economic agency was God’s providential path toward achieving black freedom, figures like Paul Cuffe show how notions of black religion must be broadened to include intellectual expressions of sacred experience such as economic hope. Cuffe, a wealthy black merchant, Quaker, and philanthropist challenged paternalistic orientations to abolitionism and called for an expanded expression of benevolence based on shared economic power. I contend that black economic agency emerged alongside white Christian abolitionism and philanthropy as early as the beginning of the nineteenth century and redefined how democracy and freedom could be imagined after slavery. While interrogating how abolitionists behind British companies in Freetown employed religious reasoning to explain their pursuit of profit, I narrate the unfolding of black economic cooperation and hope as a revisionist project to desegregate the transatlantic marketplace and alter the blueprint for freedom in Sierra Leone. My dissertation shows that abolitionism and philanthropic giving as a means toward social improvement must include a democratically imagined idea of benevolence. Benevolence on these terms broadens the scope of the humanitarian gift to include aid in support of entrepreneurial growth within communities, cooperative practices between benefactors and beneficiaries, and shared economic power.

Bio: Tim Rainey is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Religion at Emory University in Atlanta, GA and holds a B.A. degree in Religious Studies from Morehouse College and an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. His research focuses on religion, race, and economy in the nineteenth century Black Atlantic world. His current project, “Beyond the Shadow of Destiny: Religion, Freedom, and the Rise of Economic Pan-Africanism in the Age of Paul Cuffe, 1807-1817,” focuses on narratives of black Americans who migrated to Freetown, Sierra Leone following the American Revolution to build a market in African goods and supplant the trade in slaves. Believing economic agency was God’s providential path toward achieving black freedom, the Freetown returnees show how notions of black religion must be expanded to include intellectual expressions of sacred experience such as economic hope.

October 29

Mark Wilhelm, Professor, Department of Economics, IUPUI; Professor, Philanthropic Studies, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

"Gender Differences in Goal Setting: Evidence from a Fundraising Experiment" (Authors: Sarah Smith (University of Bristol) and Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm)

Abstract: We find evidence of gender differences in goal-setting. Women are more conservative goal setters than men, i.e. they are less likely to set goals and set lower-value goals. Women’s performance improves, compared to no goal, only when they set low-value goals, while men’s performance improves only when they set high-value goals. A plausible explanation for these differences is that women place more weight on luck rather than effort in determining outcomes, compared to men. A practical takeaway is that encouraging goal setting can improve performance for women and men – but only if different gender responses are taken into account.

Bio: Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm is Professor of Economics at IUPUI and Professor of Philanthropic Studies at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. He conducts empirical research on prosocial behavior, and has published articles about this work in a wide variety of journals in economics, psychology, and sociology. His current research projects are about dual-motive (altruism/egoism) theories of giving, the time dimension of giving, and the transmission of giving from parents to children. He was the Founding Director of the Philanthropy Panel Study, the generosity module in the United States’ Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and also led the design of generosity modules that are included in the American National Election Study 2008-2009 Panel, the National Study of American Jewish Giving, and the National Study of American Religious Giving. In 2014-2015 he was the Eileen Lamb O’Gara Visiting Chair in Women’s Philanthropy at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, and in 2018-2019 the Dean’s Fellow (Visiting). Professor Ottoni-Wilhelm earned his Ph.D. in Economics from New York University.

November 18

Cassandra Chapman, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Business School

"Toward a triadic understanding of charitable giving: How donors, beneficiaries, fundraisers, and social contexts influence donation decisions"

Abstract: My research applies social psychological theories about intergroup relations to understand not only who gives to charity but also when, why, and to benefit whom. In this talk, I will overview a program of mixed-methods research on triadic relations in charitable giving. I use diverse methods (surveys, experiments, thematic analysis, meta-analysis, and conceptual review; combined N = 21,109 people from 117 countries) to argue that charitable giving is triadic, relational, and contextualized. That is, decisions about donations are informed by a triad of actors (donors, beneficiaries, and fundraisers), the relationships among them, and the wider social context. In addition to empirical evidence, I will present a new theoretical model of charitable giving—the charitable triad—that generates novel hypotheses for how donors, beneficiaries, and fundraisers relate to one another and inform giving.

Bio: Cassandra Chapman is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland’s Business School investigating how identities influence donor decisions and the importance of trust for the nonprofit sector. Before commencing her PhD, she spent 6 years working in fundraising and communications roles for nonprofits on three continents. Dr Chapman’s PhD research on triadic relations in charitable giving has won several awards, including ARNOVA’s Gabriel G. Rudney Memorial Award for an Outstanding Dissertation in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research, and the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists’ Outstanding Postgraduate Research Award. Her work has been published in leading interdisciplinary journals, including NVSQ, Psychology & Marketing, and Social and Personality Psychology Compass.