Biography
Dana R. H. Doan, Ph.D., M.P.P. is the Director of the Global Philanthropy Indices, which include the Global Philanthropy Environment Index and the Global Philanthropy Tracker. She joined the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy research team in 2024 and is currently the Global Philanthropy Fellow for 2025-2026, a competitive fellowship selected from philanthropic scholars from all over the world. She has over two decades of work experience with social purpose organizations in the U.S.A., Southeast Asia, and Latin America, and has also designed and led courses for nonprofit professionals. In 2008, Dana founded the first philanthropy support organization in Vietnam, which operated out of Ho Chi Minh City until 2022.
Dana’s research interests include comparative studies on philanthropy infrastructure, policy, and practice; community philanthropy and community-led development; and social change evaluation and performance management. Dana is an active volunteer with the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR), the Association for Research on Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Organizations (ARNOVA), and the global #ShiftThePower and #MeasuringWhatMatters movements. She also co-convenes ISTR’s Research for Practice Affinity Group.
Some of Dana’s recent and on-going collaborative research projects include the 2025 Global Philanthropy Environment Index, the 2022 and 2025 GPEI South & Southeast Asia Regional Reports, and Contextualization Approach: Reframing Nonprofit and Philanthropy Research with Insights from Asia, which won the 2025 UMD Do Good Institute & ARNOVA Global Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership Award.
Originally from Los Angeles, Dana received her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, her master’s degree from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, and her doctorate from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. She works remotely from Ho Chi Minh City.