The AIM Alliance Nonprofit Data Conference seeks to provide a venue for students, researchers and faculty from the Midwest to discuss nonprofit sector data, research and research methodologies. The goal is to increase understanding of the sector’s state, impact and effectiveness by creating a venue for robust discussion on data and research methodologies. The AIM Alliance Nonprofit Data Conference is being organized as a session track within the ARNOVA conference in Cleveland, Ohio in November 2009.

Participation in this conference is free. To register, please e-mail .

Please note: All seminars run from noon to 1:30pm local time (Indiana is in the Eastern time zone and now observes daylight savings like most of the rest of the country). Unless otherwise noted, all workshops are run concurrently in the Walker II Building conference room 201-B in Indianapolis and SPEA 300 (the Dean's conference room).

WIMPS Fall 2009 Schedule in PDF format

Speakers: Patricia Wittberg (Sociology and PHST, IUPUI)
The Bloomington site for this presentation will be SPEA 320A (Center on Congress conference room).

Speakers: Joe Palus (PHST doctoral student, IUPUI)
Reading Resources: A draft of the analysis

Abstract: The effect of the economic downturn on foundation grantmaking has been examined extensively in trade publications and the popular press. Foundation responses to the crisis have also been examined extensively, in terms of shifting priorities, grantmaking levels, and the effect on commitments of recessions both recent and historic. The current economic crisis and the foundation response thereto (as well as the public perception of that response) represent an opportunity to examine how foundations tell their story—how they present themselves and what values they seek to communicate to grantees, grantseekers, other stakeholders and the general public. Kabanoff and Daly (2002) offer a framework to examine the espoused values of organizations. Whitman (2009) moves one step further, expanding on earlier research to craft a framework to specifically examine the espoused and demonstrated values of foundations.
These analyses suggest but do not address interesting questions about how articulation and demonstration of those values shift (if at all) in response to external circumstances such as economic distress. When times are tough, how do foundations present their values, to grantees/applicants, members of the public, regulators, peers, and other key stakeholders? What story do they seek to tell? How do they make sense of both events and their responses thereto?

Speakers: Lauren Morris MacLean (Polical Science and PHST, IUB)

Abstract: In this presentation, Lauren M. MacLean focuses on chapters one and four from her forthcoming book, Informal Institutions and Citizenship in Rural Africa: Risk and Reciprocity in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. This book challe nges previous assumptions about institutions, social capital, and the nature of the African state by investigating the history of political and economic change in villages on either side of the Ghana–Cote d’Ivoire border. Prior to European colonial rule, these Akan villages had very similar political and cultural institutions. By the late 1990s, however, MacLean found puzzling differences in the informal institutions of reciprocity and indigenous notions of citizenship. Drawing on extensive village-based fieldwork and archival research, MacLean argues that divergent histories of state formation not only shape how villagers help each other but also influence how local groups and communities define citizenship and then choose to engage with the state on an everyday basis. She examines the historical construction of the state role in mediating risk at the local level across three policy areas: political administration (Ch. 4), social service delivery, and agriculture, highlighting the importance of the colonial and post-colonial state in transforming informal institutions.

• The Transformation of Informal Institutions of Social Reciprocity in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire
• The Legacies of the Colonial Administrative State in Constructing the Citizen, Family and Community Role
• Informal Institutions and Citizenship in Rural Africa: Risk and Reciprocity in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire (Microsoft Powerpoint)

Speakers: Deb Mesch (Director of Women's Philanthropy Institute, SPEA, and PHST, IUPUI), Mark Wilhelm (Economics and PHST, IUPUI), and Zach Moore (Economics MA student)

By: Marc Hardy, Doctoral Candidate, Philanthropic Studies

Speakers: Kevin Cramer (Department of History, IUPUI)

Abstract: The Gustav Adolf Association was founded in Leipzig in 1832 to provide financial support to impoverished German Protestant communities living outside of Germany under Catholic rule. Over the course of a century, from German unification to the collapse of the Third Reich, the religious imperatives of this philanthropic foundation became increasingly inflected with a militant nationalism that supported the expansion of Germany hegemony in Eastern Europe. This paper will examine the evolution of a “theology of philanthropy” in which an apolitical charitable mission was gradually corrupted by nationalism and racism.

Speakers: René Bekkers (Sociology, Utrecht University, and Philanthropic Studies, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

Abstract: Education is a ubiquitious correlate of philanthropic behavior. Why would that be? Why is it that higher educated people are more likely to report donations to charitable causes, and an array of other philanthropic behaviors like volunteering and organ donation? Is the relationship causal, and if so, what aspects of education make people more philanthropic?

In this talk I summarize the results of a major research project funded by a grant from the Dutch NSF that I've been working on in the past four years to answer this question. The explanations I tested using empirical analyses of cross-sectional, longitudinal and experimental data originate from different disciplines and include cognitive and economic processes, personality traits, social background and networks, and prosocial attitudes and values. I also share insights I gained along the way about the process of doing multidisciplinary social science research.

In a series of articles - some of them still unpublished - I've found that (1) the relationship between education and giving is partly due to measurement error; (2) the relationship is largely due to self-selection of those with traits that make them more likely to continue and succeed in education; (3) the remaining part is due to the causal influence of education.

Speakers: Robert A. Katz (Faculty, IU School of Law - Indianapolis and PHST)

“Social enterprise”— the notion that businesses can be configured to “do well by doing good”—has received a lot of attention, such as Muhammad Yunus' Nobel Peace Prize, speeches by Bill Gates, a recent Papal Encyclical, and Business Week's and Fast Company Magazine's top 25 lists. This presentation identifies essential characteristics of a social enterprise and explains why conventional for-profit and nonprofit organizational law and forms fail to adequately address the distinct challenges confronting the archetypal social enterprise. It also evaluates new and proposed forms and regimes designed to promote social enterprise-like entities.

Of all the circumstances that prompt a philanthropic response, few are as urgent or spontaneous as when disaster strikes.

Local and national emergencies prompt unique intersections of government, corporate, nonprofit, and individual relief efforts. These efforts have received increased attention in recent years, as large-scale disasters have led to intense media coverage and have inspired widespread volunteerism and charitable giving.

The summit will brought together 35 of the nation’s leading experts from key nonprofits, foundations, government organizations, corporations, and news organizations to candidly discuss how best to strengthen the philanthropic preparation for and response to disasters.

For more information about the participants, agenda, resources in disaster philanthropy and more, visit www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/summit2009/.

Presented By: Workshop in Multidisciplinary Philanthropic Studies
Speakers: Marybeth Gasman (Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania)
Event Information and Reading Resources

Watch the recording online

Presented By: Third Millennium Philanthropy and Leadership Initiative

Co-hosted by the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving and Christian Theological Seminary
Event Information

Presented by: Workshop in Multidisciplinary Philanthropic Studies
Speakers: Doug Ihrke (University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee) & Andy Holman (Ritz Holman CPAs)

Abstract: This paper explores the influence of financial indicators on the health and survival of nonprofit organizations. The study examines some previously identified influences, such as revenue diversity, and posits that other financial characteristics, such as revenue stability, are also important to nonprofit organizations. The findings of this research suggest that the importance of financial indicators varies by subsector and organizational size.

Resources: PowerPoint Presentation | Adobe PDF Document