Kirsten Grønbjerg

Education

• Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1974
• M.A., University of Chicago, 1970
• B.A., Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, 1968

Courses

• Fund Development for Nonprofits
• Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector

Biography

Dr. Kirsten Grønbjerg is a nationally recognized scholar on nonprofit and public sector relationships. She has been with SPEA since 1997 and is also an adjunct professor in the Sociology Department. In addition, Grønbjerg holds the Efroymson Chair in Philanthropy at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, located at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), where she is also professor of Philanthropic Studies.

For the last 15 years, Grønbjerg has directed a major project on the Indiana Nonprofit Sector: Scope and Community Dimensions which analyzes and disseminates information about Indiana nonprofits and their contributions to the state and local community to help community leaders and public policy makers develop effective and collaborative solutions to community needs.

Her other research and publications focus on nonprofit funding relations, nonprofit capacity, nonprofit data sources, and the American welfare system. Grønbjerg directs a group of researchers publishing a series of reports to help community leaders develop effective and collaborative solutions to community needs and to inform public policy decisions by providing baseline information about the Indiana nonprofit sector.

In 2016, Grønbjerg was named a National Academy of Public Administration Fellow. In 2005, she received the Award for Distinguished Achievement and Leadership in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA).

She is active in public service as a member of the Giving USA Advisory Council for Methodology since 2000, a member of the International Reference Group for a major project on Danish Voluntary Work; and a member of the Community Planning and Research Committee of the United Way of Central Indiana.