Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society
The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society is committed to strengthening civil society through education, research, and leadership training.

An integral part of The Graduate Center (GC), the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (Center) focuses on giving, volunteerism, and nonprofit entrepreneurship by individual donors, foundations, and corporations in the United States and around the world.
The Center works to link academic approaches with practitioner needs. Under the leadership of director Kathleen D. McCarthy, its signature International Fellows Programs (Senior International Fellows Program and Emerging Leaders International Fellows Program) for scholar-practitioners presently counts 249 alumni from 72 countries across 6 continents. The program’s alumni have gone on to found new associations and foundations, create university courses and research centers, establish fellowships in philanthropy, and staff and lead many of the institutions and programs spearheading the globalization of modern philanthropy. Program alumni present and publish widely in the field of civil society, helping to create a literature on the field in their own languages.
Other Center projects include:
- multidisciplinary seminars on civil society for CUNY faculty and advanced graduate students
- global research and edited volumes on women and philanthropy
- multi-volume series to help integrate philanthropy as a topic in college and university curricula and to enhance nonprofit professionals' knowledge in the areas of development and fundraising.
The Center supports GC students via research/travel awards and William Randolph Hearst Graduate Assistantships intended for women and minority students working in philanthropy, civil society, international development and global studies.
Latest news
More Like ThisAnnouncing the 2023 Senior International Fellows
The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York is pleased to announce the selection of eight Fellows who will join us for this year’s Senior International Fellows Program. The Fellows come from Brazil, Italy, Ghana, Kosovo, Mexico, Senegal, and Ukraine and will attend seminars together in New York throughout the month of October.
Read about the Fellows, their research topics, and their professional development in the field of philanthropy.
- Announcement
NEW AWARD OPPORTUNITY: HEARST GRADUATE ASSISTANSHIPS
William Randolph Hearst Graduate Assistantships are now available for CUNY Graduate Center students doing work related to civil society, philanthropy or nonprofit studies.
- Announcement
Center Director Kathleen McCarthy Published on HistPhile
"Melinda Gates’s The Moment of Lift, is a feminist Gospel of Wealth for the 21st century," writes U.S. historian and Center director Kathleen McCarthy in her review of the feminist billionaire's recent memoir for HistPhil, a web publication on the history of the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors.
- Announcement

New Report!
Sustaining Civil Society: Lessons from Five Pooled Funds in Eastern Europe
Barry Gaberman, Merrill Sovner, and William Moody Report highlighted in Inside ISTR and Alliance magazine. See authors' discussion of pooled funds in NGOsource.
View reportBy the numbers
News
Oct 6, 2022
Announcing the 2022 Emerging Leaders International Fellows Program
The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society has selected five fellows for this year's program, held from September 26 to November 18, 2022.
Apr 19, 2022
Welcoming The 2022 Senior International Fellows
The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York is pleased to announce the selection of four Fellows to this year's virtual program, held from April 25-May 20, 2022.
Sep 27, 2021
Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society Announces the Fall 2021 Society and Protest Workshop Series
The Society and Protest Workshop announces the fall 2021 schedule on the theme of "Insider-Outsider Strategies": Wednesday, October 20, 12:00 p.m. "Strategies and Symbols of...
Sep 27, 2021
Welcoming the 2021 Emerging Leaders International Fellows
The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York is pleased to announce the selection of four Fellows to this year's virtual program, held from September 27-December 3, 2021.
- Research News

Featured Research
Leadership and the Lifecycles: Reflections on Community Foundations in New Zealand and Australia
by Marion Webster and Mark Bentley
View report