Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society

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

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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.        

    announcement 0f the 2023 SENIOR INTERNATIONAL FELLOWS is forthcoming.                 

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

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Oct 31, 2022

Spring 2023: Fellowship Opportunity & Course on 20th-Century US Foundations

Application deadline: November 14, 2022

Fellowships available: Up to eight $1,250 fellowships for participants in “Twentieth-Century American Foundations,” a spring 2023 history course developed in collaboration with the Rockefeller Archive Center

Course designed for

  • students interested in public or applied history and writing historically-based program reviews with a focus on grantmaking foundations
  • students interested in learning about foundations and the wide variety of causes and initiatives that they fund.

CUNY doctoral/MA students eligible to apply. 

Course, funding and application details.

  • Announcement
May 25, 2021

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
May 25, 2021

New Award Opportunity: Hearst Graduate Assistantships

William Randolph Hearst Graduate Assistantships are now available for CUNY Graduate Center students doing work related to civil society, philanthropy or nonprofit studies.

Learn more about the Hearst Graduate Assistantship

  • Announcement
Sustaining Civil Society: Lessons from Five Pooled Funds in Eastern Europe - report thumbnail

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.

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By the numbers

News

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

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
Leadership and the Lifecycles: Reflections on Community Foundations in New Zealand and Australia - report thumbnail

Featured Research

Leadership and the Lifecycles: Reflections on Community Foundations in New Zealand and Australia

by Marion Webster and Mark Bentley

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