A New Generation of Leaders, Scholars

The Center on Philanthropy’s first Ph.D.’s in Philanthropic Studies are already impacting philanthropy in a variety of ways.

The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University launched its Ph.D. in Philanthropic Studies program in 2003 as the world’s first traditional-format doctoral program in the field. Now the first students to graduate—Salvatore Alaimo, Julie Hatcher, Al Lyons(Lyons will soon complete final requirements for his degree), and Yue “Jen” Shang—are making their marks on the nonprofit sector as educators, researchers, and practitioners.

From left: Al Lyons, Yue “Jen” Shang, Julie Hatcher, and Salvatore Alaimo

“Our goal is to train a new generation of leaders, teachers, and scholars, and so far the students who have finished up are moving exactly on the track we had hoped,” says Leslie Lenkowsky, director of graduate programs at the Center.

He says the Ph.D. graduates will have direct and indirect effects on the nonprofit sector, both in the United States and internationally.

Their research will help expand knowledge about philanthropy and yield practical solutions for organizations and communities. Already, their work has led to more effective fundraising tactics for public radio stations, better evaluation methods for Atlanta-area nonprofits, a symposium on researching civic-mindedness among college students, and more.

They will also help build the numerous Philanthropic Studies and nonprofit management academic programs that have launched worldwide. “There are estimates that about 250 colleges and universities within the United States offer some level of instruction in Philanthropic Studies or nonprofit management. We expect that our students will comprise faculty at some of the leading institutions,” Lenkowsky says. “They’re going to be engaged in helping to prepare people at the undergraduate and master’s levels who are going into careers in nonprofits.”

The Center’s Ph.D. graduates will also pursue their own careers in the nonprofit sector, at a time when well-prepared leaders are needed to address complex challenges the sector faces, including a “leadership deficit” left by retiring Baby Boomers. “Understanding the theory of a field always helps to improve practice,” says Dwight Burlingame, associate executive director and director of academic programs at the Center.

More than 30 students have entered the Ph.D. in Philanthropic Studies program, which will welcome its sixth class in fall 2009.

Improving Nonprofit Programs

Salvatore Alaimo
Assistant Professor, School of Public and Nonprofit Administration, Grand Valley State University (beginning fall 2009)

Salvatore Alaimo takes the same approach to his research as he’s taken to his careers as a nonprofit professional and consultant: he wants to generate results. “This can’t just be research for the sake of publishing something,” he says. “It has to be so nonprofits can more effectively and efficiently manage their operations and serve their missions.”

His current research continues his dissertation topic: he’s analyzing factors that affect the ability of nonprofits to evaluate the effectiveness of their programs, in order to help them understand and plan for this essential organizational function. He’s also examining the services that nonprofits contract out at a cost of more than $100 billion annually, and hopes to inspire further research about this key issue.

Alaimo will join the faculty at Grand Valley State University’s School of Public and Nonprofit Administration in fall 2009. In addition to an introductory course for undergraduates, “Voluntarism and the Nonprofit Sector,” he will teach a graduate course in program evaluation that he developed specifically for GVSU that will likely be part of the school’s new master’s degree program in nonprofit management. He will also conduct research at GVSU’s Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership.

Between course planning, research, and wrapping up his consulting work, Alaimo is also executive producing an hour-long documentary that will define philanthropy in its full breadth, beyond just giving money. He hopes the film, scheduled for completion in 2010, will be used in classrooms as a learning tool.

Educating Civic-Minded Professionals

Julie Hatcher
Associate Director, Center for Service and Learning
Faculty Member in Philanthropic Studies, Center on Philanthropy
Adjunct Faculty Member, School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

Julie Hatcher has long had a passion for supporting college students to become leaders in philanthropy and nonprofit management. For the last 10 years, she has taught a course called “Community Service Seminar” that introduces service-minded undergraduates to the study of philanthropy and, often, to brand-new ideas about how they can contribute to their communities.

“Undergraduates will say, ‘I’ve always been involved in service, but you mean I can study this? There are careers in this area?’” says Hatcher, who will begin teaching nonprofit management to graduate students in fall 2009. “That course starts to reshape how undergraduates think about their major and what they want to end up doing.My hope is that regardless of their major, students are challenged to see their education as a public good, not simply a private gain.”

In her work with IUPUI’s Center for Service and Learning—which seeks to engage faculty, students, and staff in service activities that mutually benefit the campus and community—Hatcher works with faculty to integrate service-learning into courses and is involved with a number of research projects.

Her research focuses on civic-minded graduates and professionals—people who give of their time and talents through their work—and civic-minded graduates. Her ultimate goal: to understand the role of higher education in preparing people for lives of philanthropy and service, to apply what she learns, and to share it with other researchers.She is active in a number of national initiatives focused on civic outcomes, routinely meets with international guests visiting the Center on Philanthropy to share campus work in service learning and civic engagement, and collaborates with international partners to design curriculum and new programs. At the May 2009 Symposium for Civic Outcomes, which Hatcher helped organize, twenty-eight researchers nationwide came to IUPUI to discuss the study of civic outcomes for college students.

Building Bridges

Al Lyons
Director of Social Innovation and Nonprofit Leadership, Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership, Grand Valley State University

Al Lyons is an expert at achieving progress through partnerships:

• As director of social innovation at the Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership, he helps bring together nonprofits, businesses, and government to solve social problems.

• While he was a doctoral student, he worked with colleagues at the Center on Philanthropy and Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and School of Public and Environmental Affairs to start and run a graduate certificate program in social entrepreneurship.

• He was a consultant for more than 30 years, partnering with hospitals on their fund development, board development, strategic planning, and more.

Today Lyons, who will soon complete final requirements for his doctorate, directs the Johnson Center’s Nonprofit Leadership Institute—which provides services to local nonprofits—and guides the center’s research projects on practical issues such as capacity building. “We’re looking at the key issues nonprofits are facing and asking how we can develop better approaches to meet those needs,” says Lyons, who is completing the final requirements for his degree.

Lyons also teaches courses in organizational theory and nonprofit history and ethics at Grand Valley State University’s School of Public and Nonprofit Administration. He plans to teach in the school’s new master’s degree program in nonprofit management.

Uncovering the Psychology of Giving

Yue “Jen” Shang
Post-Doctoral Fellow in Philanthropic Studies, Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University
Assistant Professor, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University Bloomington (beginning fall 2009)

Jen Shang’s research has already made a measureable difference in the fundraising of at least 10 public radio stations throughout the country. Her dissertation blended psychology and fundraising to uncover listeners’ motivations for giving and to improve the stations’ fundraising appeals.

Through approaches such as appealing to listeners’ desire to identify with people who are like them and calling on listeners to join a group effort to support a particular station, the stations in Shang’s study improved their gifts from annual donors by an average of 10 percent, and as much as 30 percent.

Shang’s research led to teaching responsibilities in Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) in Bloomington. She taught fund development to graduate students there in fall 2008, and she will begin a tenure-track assistant professorship at SPEA in fall 2009, teaching strategic management for the arts and nonprofit marketing.

The Center on Philanthropy’s first post-doctoral fellow (a position funded by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation), she plans to study how people’s philanthropic actions are affected by how they identify with other donors. “The goal is not simply to improve the quantity of giving, but the quality of it,” she says, and to make givers into philanthropists “by using the concept of identity to create a meaningful giving process.”

In addition to motivating people to give, Shang hopes her research will inspire other researchers to study philanthropic psychology.

More Info

Learn more about the Ph.D. in Philanthropic Studies.