Useful Links for Philanthropy Research

The Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) is a diverse community of scholars, educators, and practice leaders that strengthens the field of nonprofit and philanthropic research in order to improve civil society and human life.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals empowers individuals and organizations to practice ethical fundraising through professional education, networking, research and advocacy.

The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society is committed to strengthening civil society through education, research, and leadership training. An integral part of The Graduate Center, the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society focuses on giving, volunteerism, and nonprofit entrepreneurship by individual donors, foundations, and corporations in the United States and around the world.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy is the premier source of news, opinion, and advice that nonprofit professionals, foundation executives, board members, fundraisers, and others rely on to stay up-to-date and guide their decision making. 

This section features all legal, best practices, sample documents, and resources we believe can help grantmakers and foundations. Some of these items are only available to members.

We envision a world of engaged individuals, robust institutions, and vibrant communities working together to improve lives and the natural world, and strengthen democratic societies. To help create this future, we lead and catalyze the charitable community, partnering with government, business, and individuals to advance the common good.

Our organizational strategies are results-centered and racial equity-focused. We believe all charitable nonprofits and foundations in this country should be healthy and equitable to ensure that all people in the United States thrive, with targeted focus on Native, Black, Latinx, Asian, and other communities of color.

The International Journal of Educational Advancement published new ideas, shares examples of best practices, and develops a body of knowledge in educational advancement. The journal includes thought-provoking, topical articles from academic researchers and advancement professionals working in schools, colleges, and universities, thus providing a forum for the equally important aspects of alumni relations, fund raising, communications, public relations, and marketing. Its contents acknowledge the increasingly complex management of advancement, with articles which provide in-depth and cutting-edge analysis of new concepts and applications.

The Philanthropic Studies Archives documents the history of the philanthropic tradition, including the historical records of nonprofit organizations, advocates for the nonprofit sector, fundraising firms, private foundations, individual philanthropists, and organizations and individuals involved in national service theory and practice.

Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing is the major professional journal publishing in-depth, peer-reviewed articles and case studies on advancement, development, alumni relations, fundraising, marketing and communications for educational institutions. Content is written by and for professionals in the field with no advertising or sales pitches.

Each quarterly 100-page issue – published both in print and online – features detailed, practical articles which showcase the latest thought leadership in how to identify, build and steward life-long relationships with alumni, businesses and other donors, along with actionable advice and ‘lessons learned’ on advancement, development, marketing and communications strategy for educational institutions. It does not publish advertising but rather detailed analysis of new thinking and practice at a wide range of universities, colleges and schools worldwide for readers to benchmark their organization against, with every article being peer-reviewed by an expert Editorial Board to ensure that it focuses on the advancement professional’s perspective, the challenges they face and how they can tackle them.

 Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing (previously Intenational Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing) provides an international forum for peer-reviewed papers on the latest techniques, thinking and best practice within non-profit and voluntary sector marketing. The journal provides a forum for those who are interested in the interface between marketing and philanthropy in its broadest sense (giving, benevolence, welfare, altruism, prosocial behaviour and ‘doing good’).

The IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy is globally recognized as the first of its kind. School faculty and staff train and empower students and practitioners to innovate and lead—and to create positive and lasting change in the world.

Designed as a portal for nonprofit practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to download and explore data, this is the home for all NCCS publications. 

Aimed to strengthen voluntary giving and build professionalism in fundraising by addressing how the concepts and traditions of philanthropy pertain to fundraising practice.

Articles and multimedia about philanthropy.

Nonprofit Management & Leadership is a quarterly peer-reviewed journal that publishes quality scholarship on all aspects of management and leadership important to nonprofit organizations and leaders.

Nonprofit Management and Leadership (NML)  publishes the field's best conceptual advances in understanding management, leadership, or governance of private nonprofit organizations.  Each issue of NML offers readers the authoritative insights of top scholars on the common concerns of nonprofit managers, leaders, and boards in all private nonprofit settings, including social services, the arts, education, foundations, community development, religion, and member associations.  The journal publishes full research monographs up to 10,000 words, and research notes up to 5,500 words.  All research methods and approaches are welcome, so long as authors can articulate substantial advances in knowledge relevant to the field and implications for practice.

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly publishes high-quality peer-reviewed manuscripts from a diverse array of disciplinary and methodological perspectives on nonprofits, philanthropy, voluntary action, and civil society across the globe. The journal publishes full-length articles, research notes, and book reviews. NVSQ, published bi-monthly, is the official journal of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). 

Philanthropy Education Translational Research Archive (PETRA) is a dynamic research tool for scholars and practitioners who are interested in the intersection of philanthropy and education. Philanthropy and fundraising are both an art and a science. Advancement and fundraising have become an increasingly professionalized field of practice over the last few decades. Simultaneously there has been an increase in the field of philanthropic studies research. However, often these two parallel and related fields do not interact. Scholars and practitioners do not use each other’s work to inform their own.

PETRA brings together the scholarship of researchers and practitioners into conversation with one another. Through the systematic collection and documentation of materials, PETRA contributes to the production of promising new and more inclusive knowledge and practice. PETRA engages in translational research that applies findings from the science of philanthropy to enhance philanthropic engagement.

Philanthropic Studies Index (PSI) is a tool to locate information on voluntarism, nonprofit organizations, fundraising, and charitable giving. The bulk of citations currently indexed are from academic journals, dated 1940 to the 2015.

Philanthropy & Education, which published its first issue in November 2017, emerged from discussions among the growing number of scholars and students who study philanthropy and fundraising within education. While we publish in different venues, both in the field of education and within the disciplines, we noticed a significant gap exists. Publishing semiannually each May and November, Philanthropy & Education is sponsored by TC and published by Indiana University Press. The journal publishes interdisciplinary works that examine prosocial voluntary actions benefitting education. 

The journal’s mission is to advance scholarship in and inform practice around philanthropy, broadly defined, including but not limited to fundraising, volunteerism, civic engagement, alumni relations, corporate social responsibility, and prosocial behavior development. As such, Philanthropy & Education will publish empirical and scholarly studies that are written in a way that is accessible to practitioners across the spectrum of disciplinary perspectives with a clear implication for practice.

The Philanthropy Journal offers unsurpassed storytelling, original reporting, and curation of illuminating conversations from around the globe delivered each week. PJ provides provocative coverage of individuals and organizations whose work is making a positive impact in our communities. We push past the typical nonprofit narrative to help our readers understand the importance of the sector, and their connection to the work, in order to build more engaged communities of support.

By connecting our audiences to this work, our readers have a clearer sense of how the nonprofit sector positively impacts each and every person on this planet.

Philanthropy Roundtable’s vision is to build and sustain a vibrant American philanthropic movement that strengthens our free society.

With the private sector increasingly investing in local communities, with more businesses “doing well by doing good,” and with nonprofits modernizing how they measure their impact, philanthropy in America is transforming. Urban examines today’s evolving giving practices, explores nonprofit sector trends, and analyzes the effectiveness of grantmaking centered on race and equity. Leaders on the front lines of change look to Urban for data- and evidence-based insights to strengthen their efforts to address today’s complex, interconnected social problems.

Voluntas, the official journal of the International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR), is an interdisciplinary journal that provides a central forum for worldwide research in the area between the state, market, and household sectors. The journal publishes full-length articles and book reviews.

The Voluntary Support of Education (VSE) survey has collected data on fundraising at U.S. public and private colleges and universities and a select group of private K-12 institutions since 1957. It is the authoritative source of data on charitable giving to educational institutions in the U.S. CASE has managed the survey since 2018, having acquired it from the Council for Aid to Education (CAE), which managed it from 1957–2017.

CASE encourages any institution that wishes to contribute data to participate in the VSE survey. The data are used to estimate national trends and for benchmarking by individual institutions.