In this article, RGK Center Associate Professor Joshua Busby and co-author Bethany Albertson draw attention to the appeals that best persuade the U.S. public on climate change. Using an experimental design, Drs. Busby and Albertson assessed a diverse sample of 330 participants on their responses to four different appeals. The experiment yielded some surprising results particularly with regard to the impact that varying degrees of climate change knowledge had on participant response to the persuasive messaging.
This paper describes a teaching project that involved graduate students in nonprofit studies at the LBJ School of Public Affairs in a community engagement “crowdsourcing” effort focused on the topic of short-term volunteering. Students were responsible for organizing a one-day online brainstorming session, called a “jam,” in which geographically dispersed participants contributed to a 12-hour online discussion related to the topic with input from experts in the field.
Researchers at the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service, The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work and the Austin Police Department (APD) have partnered with community leaders and stakeholders to Restore Rundberg, which aims to “improve the quality of life, health, safety, education, and well-being of individuals living and working in the Rundberg neighborhood.” Sustainable and innovative community engagement is at the core of this effort.
A major goal of the Restore Rundberg project is to increase collective efficacy and community engagement, and community-level interventions are currently being implemented in this vein. In order to assess the effect of these interventions on collective efficacy and community engagement of Rundberg residents, researchers compiled a community survey that measures residents’ perceptions of these factors before and after implementation of interventions.
Several million reported and unreported delinquent acts take place each year. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, juvenile delinquency, acting-out and oppositional behavior, illegal drugs, guns, and youth violence are pervasive throughout American society. Juvenile Justice Sourcebook is the first comprehensive volume devoted exclusively to the biopsychosocial assessment, police and juvenile court processing, and institutional and community-based treatment and rehabilitation of juvenile offenders.
Challenges in Volunteer Resource Management, an article by the RGK Center’s Margaret Moore and Dr. Sarah Jane Rehnborg, was published in the December 2013 issue of the International Journal of Volunteer Administration. The paper presents findings of a study to identify top challenges in volunteer resource management based on surveys of stakeholders at diverse nonprofit organizations.
The RGK Center’s former director Peter Frumkin and research associate Anastasia Kolendo collaborated on a national study of arts facilities published by the Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago. Set in Stone looks at the major building boom of museums, performing arts centers, and theaters in the United States from 1994 to 2008.
In the spring and summer of 2011, the George Foundation engaged Professor Peter Frumkin at the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service, at the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin, to conduct a comprehensive update to his 2006 needs assessment of Fort Bend County.
Two reports on foundation “sunsetting” by the RGK Center’s Francie Ostrower are available from the Aspen Institute. The reports, which provide important lessons and a guide to decision-making for foundations that “sunset” or “spend down” and close rather than continue in perpetuity, were released by the Aspen Institute’s Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation. The reports are based on a research study conducted by Dr. Ostrower with a grant awarded by the Aspen Institute.
The Strategic Management of Charter Schools addresses the challenges facing such schools by mapping out, in straightforward and highly pragmatic terms, a management framework for them.