The research notes are published quarterly. Previous editions can be found at the Member Portal.
Issue XII: September 2025
The Political Embeddedness of Voluntary Action: The Case of Local Philanthropic COVID-19 Relief Funds
Author(s): Laurie E. Paarlberg – Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, USA | Jin Ai – Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, USA | Megan LePere-Schloop – The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA | Marlene Walk – Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
Provided by: Jonathan Gunson
This article examines the relationship between political institutions and the activation of local voluntary action in the context of COVID-19 funds managed by community philanthropic organizations. What is the relationship between political institutions and voluntary action?
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Sunset Foundation – How Foundations Spend Down Affects the Impact on Staff and Grantees
Author(s): Alice Hengevoss and Georg von Schnurbein – Center for Philanthropy Studies, University of Basel
Provided by: Martina Ulrichs
Discussions around sunset foundations – foundations that exist for a limited time – are gaining increased attention in the discussion on impactful and more equitable philanthropy. Given the limited evidence on how foundations navigate this phase, the authors analyse 11 sunset foundations to identify patterns leading to decisions to sunset, as well as management and grant making practices applied throughout the process.
Fundraising Ethics: Toward an In-Depth Understanding of Individual Donors’ Perceptions
Author(s): Tine Faseur – KU Leuven | Tine De Bock – KU Leuven | Glenn Timmermanns – HogeschoolPXL
Provided by: Franziska Juch & Antonia Muhr
Exploring donors’ ethical evaluations of nonprofit fundraising practices, this study fills a critical research gap, offering an ethical framework from the donors’ perspective to advance both fundraising theory and professional standards. What drives individual donors to perceive non-profit fundraising practices as ethical or unethical?
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Designing Better Volunteering Appeals: What Works and for Whom
Author(s): Eva Maria Jedicke – University of Freiburg | Stephan Olk – Horn & Company, Düsseldorf | Adnan Zogaj – University of Freiburg | Dieter K. Tscheulin – University of Freiburg | Jörg Lindenmeier – University of Freiburg
Provided by: Ashifa Agede from Centre for Health Systems Support & Initiatives for Development
With the increasing competition for people’s time and attention, nonprofits need evidence-based strategies to design effective volunteering appeals. This study offers a model for optimizing volunteer recruitment messaging by testing which combinations of images, slogans, organizational credibility signals, and required time commitments motivate people to sign up. The research provides practitioners with practical insights to build tailored, targeted recruitment campaigns that maximize engagement by identifying what matters most to different groups of potential volunteers. Which design attributes in volunteering appeals are most effective for attracting and motivating potential volunteers, and how do preferences differ across volunteer segments?
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Growing Philanthropy through Giving Circles: Collective Giving and the Logic of Charity
Author(s): Angela M. Eikenberry – University of Connecticut | Beth Breeze – University of Kent
Provided by: Mårten Palmefors from Giva Sverige
The emergence of giving circles in the UK and Ireland, where individuals come together to pool resources and collectively support charitable causes, come from a background of growing political interest in expanding philanthropy as a complement to tax-funded welfare systems, especially amid long-term austerity pressures. While philanthropy has traditionally been seen as a voluntary, private act, policymakers have sought to stimulate giving through tax reliefs and other incentives. In this context, giving circles might be promoted as a means of engaging new donors, democratizing philanthropy, and fostering community connection. The study investigates whether giving circles in the UK and Ireland is a good tool for growing philanthropy as well as shift the logic of charity to meet the expectations of policy-makers.
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When People Start Volunteering for Humanitarian Organizations?
Author(s): Maikel Meijeren – Radboud University | René Bekkers – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | Peer Scheepers – Radboud University
Provided by: Ksenija Fonovi? from Charles University
Recruiting and retaining volunteers is a major challenge for third sector operations. Advice on how to become better in this, usually centres on the demand side: how organizations can communicate, train, award, organize. For the supply side, research has demonstrated that people who are educated, religious and economically well-off, are more likely to volunteer. Yet only some of these make this choice. And out of these, only very few for humanitarian causes. Under what circumstances, persons decide to start volunteering for humanitarian organizations? Which life course changes act as triggers?
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Engaging Young People in Philanthropy
Author(s): Claire van Teunenbroek – University of Twente | Walter Wymer – University of Lethbridge | Ljiljana Najev ?a?ija – University of Split
Provided by: Anna-Leah Gebühr
The objective of this article is to bring together and draw insights from existing research on the giving behaviour of younger generations. It explores how and why young people give time or money to non-profit organisations (NPOs) and what measures NPOs could take to attract them as donors and volunteers.
The Cultural Influence and Media Evaluations of Female Saxophonist and Patron Elise Hall (1853–1924)
Author(s): Kurt Bertels – Koninklijk Conservatorium and Vrije Universiteit Brussels | Helleke van den Braber – Utrecht University
Provided by: Matthew Ross from the Royal Academy of Music
This article explores how Elise Hall challenged gender norms and media prejudice in the early twentieth century by performing as a classical saxophonist in Boston and Paris, commissioning French composers to write music for saxophone, and providing philanthropic support for both individual artists and orchestras in Boston. How did a woman saxophonist, commissioner of new music and philanthropist influence musical culture in early twentieth century Boston, and how did her gender affect her media reception?
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Capability to Volunteer: Explaining the Varieties of Volunteering in Europe
Author(s): Bernard Enjolras -Institute for Social Research, Oslo
Provided by: Connor Audsley from Centre for European Volunteering
Through applying the capability approach to European datasets, this paper builds on existing research on factors impacting the likelihood of volunteering and provides insight into the varying rates of volunteering across Europe. Do different individual and societal factors impacting someone’s capability to volunteer explain the variation in volunteering across Europe?
| About the ERNOP Research Notes Most academic research on philanthropy is underutilised, while on the other hand, there is a need for practitioners to learn from academics. Given limited resources within the academic and philanthropy community, academic insights should be used as much as possible. However, practitioners rarely have time and access to the work published in academic journals. Besides, not all content of academic papers is relevant for practitioners. At the same time, academics often do not have time and/or skills to make their work accessible for practitioners and, what’s more, they get little rewards for doing so as the number of individual publications is often too limited to build a constituency. Therefore the European Research Network On Philanthropy (ERNOP) – the academic network of philanthropy researchers in Europe – develops the ERNOP Research Notes. The Research Notes are an initiative by ERNOP and endorsed by the European Fundraising Association (EFA), Philanthropy Europe Association (Philea), the Centre for European Volunteering (CEV) and Impact Europe. |
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