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.
In this report, Joshua Busby aims to provide strategic guidance to U.S. policymakers on engaging China on climate change. In the first section, Busby sets the context by discussing China’s energy use, emissions, and future projections, including potential emissions reductions and trajectories under different policies. In section two, he reviews China’s recent policies to address climate change and energy conservation. Busby focuses on the status of implementation of its energy-efficiency goals under its 11th Five Year Plan.
Why do advocacy campaigns succeed in some cases but fail in others? What conditions motivate states to accept commitments championed by principled advocacy movements? Joshua Busby sheds light on these core questions through an investigation of four cases - developing country debt relief, climate change, AIDS, and the International Criminal Court - in the G-7 advanced industrialized countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States).
Under contract with United Jewish Communities, the RGK Center is examining the impact of short and long term service programs on the development of Jewish identity among Jewish young people.
About 27,000 University of Texas at Austin undergraduate students performed volunteer service between August 2001 and May 2002 according to a study conducted by the University's Office of Survey Research for the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service. The survey was designed through a collaborative effort of researchers and staff from the RGK Center, Office of Survey Research, Department of Sociology, and University Volunteer Center. The 1,514 respondents were chosen through a random selection of all UT undergraduates enrolled in the spring of 2002.
RGK Center Faculty Fellow Jacqueline Angel has a new book on volunteering entitled Inheritance in Contemporary America: The Social Dimensions of Giving across Generations. In this book, she "tackles the complex legal, policy, and emotional issues that surround bequests and inheritances in an era of increasing longevity, broadening ethnicity, and unraveling social safety nets. Through empirical analyses, case studies, interviews, and anecdotes, Jacqueline L. Angel explains the historical nature of familial giving and how it is changing as the nation's demographics shift.
RGK Center Faculty Fellow Marc Musick has a new book on volunteering entitled Volunteers: A Social Profile. The book brings together the research of Musick and John Wilson (Duke University) and provides an examination of the causes and consequences of volunteering. The book argues that volunteers play a critical role in society; without them, many nonprofit, religious and governmental institutions would simply cease to function.
The information below is a supplement to the fourth issue of the Investigator series.
In this issue of The Investigator, we introduce five different methods for measuring the value of volunteers. In addition to reading the fourth issue of The Investigator, we encourage you to learn more about these methods by browsing through some of the resources we have listed below.