301 University Blvd.
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Biography
Laurie Paarlberg holds the Charles Stewart Mott Chair on Community Foundations at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and is an affiliate faculty in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (IU Indianapolis). Her nonprofit research focuses on the changing nature of community philanthropy, with a particular focus on strategic shifts in grant making by local United Ways and community foundations. With changing demographics in local communities, she is also interested in issues of equity and diversity in grant making and the rural/urban divide.
Dr. Paarlberg’s publications include numerous articles in refereed journals, including Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Voluntas, Voluntary Sector Review, Public Administration Review, International Public Management Journal, and American Review of Public Administration. Dr. Paarlberg’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
She has received the Best Paper Award for Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, the Best Conference Paper at the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) Conference, and the Accenture Advances in Public Management Award, Accenture Corporation, for Best Paper in International Public Management Journal.
Before coming to the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, she was an associate professor in the Bush School of Government and Public Service (Texas A&M University) and held the Robert H. and Judy L. Allen Professorship.
Research Reports
Education
- Ph D, Indiana University, 2003
Public Affairs (School of Public and Environmental Affairs)
Concentrations: Public Management/Public Policy
Outside Minor: Organizational Theory & Strategic Management (Kelley School of Business) - BS, Purdue University, 1980
Major: Agricultural Economics
Concentration: Community Development
Courses Taught
- Philanthropy and Civic Engagement
Publications
- The Generosity of Politics: Are Red Counties More Generous than Counties in Blue States?
- A Field Too Crowded? How Measures of Market Structure Shape Nonprofit Fiscal Health
- Heterogeneity, Income Inequality, and Social Capital: A New Perspective
- Testing a Two-Stage Grant Allocation Process: The Case of the United Way
- The Heterogeneity of Competitive Forces: The impact of competition for resources on United Way fundraising
- Captured by Partners: Interorganizational Relationships and Fund Allocation Stability in United Way Systems
- The Impact of Economic Structure on Community Philanthropy: The case of the United Way of America: 1990-2010
- Exploring Change in Institutionalized Fields: The Case of the United Way Community Impact
Research Interests
- Community philanthropy
- Community impact and public grant making
- Equity, diversity and community grant making
- Rural philanthropy
Current Projects
- Mapping the Landscape of Community Grant Making Organizations
- Examining the Community-Level Determinants of the Rural-Urban Volunteering Divide
Grants and Funding
- “Mapping the Landscape of Community Grant Making Organizations. C.S. Mott Foundation” $125,000. (8/1/2018-7/31/2020).
- “Institutional Competing Logics: Local Context vs. National Identity in United Way Systems” National Science Foundation, Division of Social and Economic Sciences Award # 1127971. $266,000.00. (8/15/2011-8/15/2014)
- “Examining the Community-Level Determinants of the Rural-Urban Volunteering Divide” Corporation for National and Community Service $147,143. (10/01/2017-9/31/2018).