Pamala Wiepking

My mission is to make philanthropy more meaningful for all actors involved, and to conduct and implement philanthropy research in such a way that it will enable the creation of generous societies. Generous societies are societies where people care about each other, and want to contribute to the public good, rather than take from it. In my TEDx Erasmus University talk I explain how I believe we can all help to create more generous societies. I am very proud to be selected as the 2017 recipient of the UMD SPP Do Good Institute-ARNOVA Award for Global Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership, which will support my collaborative international research on philanthropy.

I am the inaugural Visiting Stead Family Chair in International Philanthropy and Visiting Associate Professor of Philanthropy at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI in Indianapolis. I feel honored to have received the 2016 Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Emerging Scholar Award for outstanding scholarship related to philanthropy and fundraising.

In my academic work, I study philanthropy and nonprofit organizations from a cross-national and interdisciplinary perspective. Together with other researchers I have published on philanthropic behavior in –among others- Social Forces, the European Sociological Review, Voluntas and the Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly and with Femida Handy I have co-edited The Palgrave Handbook on Global Philanthropy, describing and explaining philanthropic giving in 25 countries and one region. The Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy was awarded the 2016 Virginia Hodgkinson Research Book Award, for the best book on the nonprofit sector that informs policy and practice.