Social Science Research Council

Beginning in 2000, the Program on Philanthropy and the Nonprofit Sector offered annual fellowships to graduate students in the social sciences and humanities to apply their knowledge of the theories and methods of their disciplines to issues concerning philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. Fellowship competitions were held for each of five years, and the final fellowships were awarded in Spring 2004. Fellowships have provided support for dissertation research on the history, behavior, and role of nonprofit and/or philanthropic organizations in the United States. A total of 43 fellowships have been awarded to doctoral students of economics, sociology, anthropology, public administration, political science and history. This program will no longer offer fellowships.

The Program has supported dissertation research on a wide range of issues, but has especially encouraged applications that hold promise in advancing understanding of the following kinds of questions:

The Program is planning a March 2005 conference that will mark the conclusion of its several years of fellowships and research planning, funded by Atlantic Philanthropies. The conference will explore two parallel themes regarding the role of philanthropic organizations in contemporary society, each of which will result in a volume.

The first theme, Philanthropic Projections of Power: Sending Institutional Logics Abroad, aims to capture ways in which philanthropic organizations reflect the institutional logics of the societies from which they originate. This relationship may be a reflection of a foundation’s explicit programmatic goals or it may be the result of tacit understandings within the organization. Philanthropic organizations (foundations, nongovernmental organizations, religious charities) reflect the institutional logics of the societies from which they originate. Such logics shape both the donor organization’s explicit programmatic goals and the tacit understandings that define the methods through which it seeks to advance those goals.

The second theme focuses on the role of nonprofit organizations and voluntary associations in the development of nation-states, with a particular focus on the American welfare state, Politics and Partnerships: Associations and Nonprofit Organizations in American Governance. The distinctive place of associations in American politics has long been recognized, captured in Tocqueville’s analysis of private organizations as sites of political socialization and civic engagement. Yet this argument typically portrays private organizations as alternatives to, or bulwarks against, the expansion of state power. Consequently, analysts have not grappled as directly with the central place of associations and nonprofit organizations in the development of American political institutions. Systems of governance have co-evolved with capacities for private organization, shaping trajectories of state-building and, in the present moment, the possibilities for reorganizing public social provision. This distinctively heterogeneous system of governance has set the terms for its own transformation and a dramatic reorganizing of the delivery of public goods over the past 25 years. As welfare states retreat and a market logic increasingly shapes the delivery of public goods, funding from philanthropic organizations and other private sources is playing an increasingly large role in issues of social welfare. However, this transformation is considerably more complex than simple epithets like ‘the privatization of public goods’ or ‘public-private partnerships’ portray.

For more information Email: phil-np@ssrc.org