New research center focuses on role of philanthropy in society
BY JONATHAN RABINOVITZ
The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society is headed by, from left, managing director Malka Kopell and faculty co-directors Debra Meyerson, an associate professor of education, and Woody Powell, a professor of education.
Three years ago, Debra Meyerson, an associate professor of education, began studying the charter school movement. A new generation of wealthy donors was pouring millions of dollars into replicating schools that had been started to improve education at the neighborhood level. Charter school management organizations were forming with the explicit intent to provoke national reform.
Meyerson set out to explore the effect of this explosion of educational entrepreneurship on public school systems. In doing so, she found herself connecting to what has become a burgeoning field for scholarship: philanthropy's effect on society. Her project has become an example of the work being encouraged by the new Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS Center), which opened its doors in September.
"Although many scholars were studying charter schools, they were by and large not considering the role of philanthropy," said Meyerson, who expects to publish her findings within the next year. "It's important to consider the way funders have influenced the priorities and effectiveness of the charter school movement."
The PACS Center's purpose is to examine the role of philanthropy—and the voluntary and civil organizations that philanthropy supports—in meeting critical challenges in the United States and abroad. By focusing on these important players, the center hopes to provide serious analysis in place of the latest "buzz" about philanthropy generated by an influx of wealth and the expansion of the philanthropists "club" to include relatively new and high profile members such as Bill Clinton and Bono.
Last week, the center kicked off its 2007-08 seminar series with a presentation by Robert Reich, an associate professor of political science, on his work in progress, "Toward a Political Theory of Philanthropy." The seminar series brings together students, practitioners and faculty such as Reich, Meyerson and others in discussions on current work in the field.
At the helm of the center are its two faculty directors, Meyerson and co-director Walter "Woody" Powell, a professor of education. "Philanthropy and civil society have been much in the news, but have spent little time under the microscope," Powell said.
While a number of universities have responded to this demand with new research programs on philanthropy, Powell said that the center has taken a distinctive approach. "It assumes the double task of developing powerful, high-impact interdisciplinary research and of training new, thoughtful leadership in this critical arena, both in the academy and in the world at large," he said.
The center fosters research in two ways: by supporting faculty projects and by leading the next generation of scholars to take on research questions in this area. Thanks to seed funding in 2006 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the center offers fellowships that encourage graduate students to pursue an area of study that crosses traditional academic disciplines, including sociology, political science, public policy and business. Through classes led by Reich and other Stanford faculty, the center also is working to introduce undergraduates to the field of philanthropy and to support undergraduate research in philanthropy and civil society.
"The PACS Center fellowship provided me with a unique opportunity to connect with students and scholars from across departments," said Ed Bruera, a doctoral candidate in political science who participated in the centerpiece yearlong interdisciplinary research workshop led by Powell. "The resulting conversations and connections made in the workshop provided a critical framework for thinking about the methodology and policy implications guiding my work."
Bruera, one of the center's inaugural graduate fellows, is focusing on the role of civil society in distributing AIDS drugs in South Africa. He was able to use the fellowship to collect some critical South African data that he needed.
In 2006, Powell and Meyerson brought in Malka Kopell, '78, as the center's managing director. Kopell, who has founded her own nonprofit and served as a foundation program officer, said that she sees the center as a way to "develop an intellectual community of both scholars and practitioners invested in social change." A set of research-practice dialogues slated for later this academic year will engage scholars and healthcare foundation staff in discussions about relevant research questions.
"Philanthropy practice is undergoing a lot of changes, many of them starting right here in Silicon Valley," Kopell said. "And at Stanford we feel we have a front-row seat."
The PACS Center, a program of the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, is being incubated and housed at the Haas Center for Public Service.
