The University of Texas at Austin

Peter Frumkin is Professor of Public Affairs and Director of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. His research and teaching focus on nonprofit management and philanthropy.

Dr. Frumkin is the author of articles on all aspects of philanthropy, including the formulation of grantmaking strategy, the changing profile of major individual donors, theories of philanthropic leverage, the professionalization movement within foundations, and other topics. He lectures on philanthropy at grantmaker meetings across the country and serves as a consultant to foundations and individual donors on strategy and evaluation. His new book, Strategic Giving: The Art and Science of Philanthropy, was recently published by the University of Chicago Press. It has been touted as the "benchmark text for the field" and "the most penetrating exploration of contemporary philanthropy now available."

Dr. Frumkin is the author of On Being Nonprofit (Harvard University Press, 2002). This book considers the changing roles and responsibilities of nonprofit organizations in American democracy and the evolution of public policies shaping the sector's growth. He is the co-editor of In Search of the Nonprofit Sector (Transaction, 2004), which examines the blurring boundaries between government, business and nonprofit sectors. He has also authored numerous articles on topics related to nonprofit management, including ones focusing on compensation policies in nonprofit organizations, the impact of fundraising strategies on nonprofit revenue generation, and the effects of public funding on nonprofit mission definition.

Dr. Frumkin is currently at work on a large-scale empirical study of the effectiveness of the national service programs AmeriCorps and VISTA. Prior to coming to the LBJ School, Frumkin was an associate professor of public policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he was affiliated with the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations. Frumkin worked as a foundation program officer, a nonprofit manager, and as a program evaluator in both nonprofit and public agencies. Frumkin received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago.

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Sarah Jane Rehnborg joined the RGK Center at its inception. An expert in volunteerism, Dr. Rehnborg is a published author in the field and has served as a consultant and trainer to organizations including the Points of Light Foundation, AARP, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Texas Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service, the Texas Department of Mental Health/Mental Retardation, the Comptroller's Office of the State of Texas and numerous local groups.

Dr. Rehnborg's RGK contribution includes grant development and reporting, community outreach and research. As a researcher, Dr. Rehnborg lead a cross-disciplinary University team which developed a valid and reliable tool to assess programs engaging volunteers and national service participants for the Corporation for National and Community Service. In addition, she completed a study on volunteer engagement in state agencies and analyzed Texas data collection practices in the field. Under Dr. Rehnborg's direction the RGK Center produced The Investigator, a periodic publication designed to encourage research in volunteerism. Currently, Rehnborg is leading an analysis of the effects of intensive service experiences on the development of Jewish identity among young Jews for the United Jewish Communities (UJC). In addition, she is developing case studies about volunteer engagement as part of a UPS-funded Volunteer Impact grant.

In addition to establishing a program of volunteerism and community education at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in the 1970s, Dr. Rehnborg established the Institute for Volunteerism at the Community College of Allegheny County and served as Associate Administrator of Human Resources at John J. Kane Hospital. As president of the international Association for Volunteer Administration, Dr. Rehnborg testified before a Congressional hearing sponsored by Senator Durenberger (R-MN).

Her high school curriculum in service-learning was adopted by the State of Maryland and was the lead component of the United Way of Pittsburgh's Volunteer Youth Training and Leadership, which received the national Second Century Award from the United Way of America. During her tenure with the University of Texas, Rehnborg worked as a Program Director for Community Engagement at the Charles A. Dana Center prior to joining the RGK Center.

Currently a member of the Nonprofit and Philanthropic Studies Bridging Discipline Committee, Dr. Rehnborg teaches at both the graduate and undergraduate level. She received her undergraduate degree from Denison University and her Masters and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.

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Rehnborg Publications
Rehnborg Projects

Francie Ostrower, Ph.D. is Professor in the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the College of Fine Arts. Prior to joining the University of Texas in 2008, she was Senior Research Associate at the Urban Institute Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy. Prior to that, she was a sociology faculty member at Harvard University. Ostrower received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale University, where she also served as Associate Director of the Program on Nonprofit Organizations.

An award winning academic, Ostrower received ARNOVA's 1996 Award for Distinguished Book in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research, and received Independent Sector's Virginia A. Hodgkinson Research Prize in 1996 and 2006. She is senior research associate at the Urban Institute Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, where she conducts research on philanthropy, governance and cultural participation.

Ostrower is the author of two books, "Trustees of Culture" and "Why the Wealthy Give," and co-author of "Race, Ethnicity and Participation in the Arts." Among her articles and monographs are "Attitudes and Practices Concerning Effective Philanthropy," "Nonprofit Governance in the United States," "The Reality Underneath the Buzz of Partnerships" "The Diversity of Cultural Participation," and a co-authored chapter on governance in "The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook."

In recent years, she has been on the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly board, the advisory committees of the Aspen Institute's Community Foundation Initiative and the National Endowment for the Arts' 2007 SPPA Planning Study, and vice president for publications and board member of the Association for Research on Voluntary and Nonprofit Action.

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Ben Sasse, a historian by training, focuses primarily on the leadership, strategic management, and reform of large institutions—governmental, nonprofit, and for profit. He studied at Harvard, Oxford, and St. John's (Annapolis) before receiving his Ph.D. from Yale. He was awarded the Annie G. K. Garland Fellowship and a Harvey Fellowship. "The Anti-Madalyn Majority: Secular Left, Religious Right, and the Rise of Reagan's America," his dissertation on American conservatism since World War II, won both the George Washington Egleston Historical Prize and the prestigious Theron Ware Field Prize.

Sasse has consulted with a wide variety of organizations at moments of strategic crisis. He has advised airlines, privatized utilities, major manufacturers, the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and a number of small nonprofit and educational institutions on issues ranging in scope from donor communications, constituent relations, outsourcing, workforce transformation, executive search, and succession planning.

At the LBJ School, Sasse teaches courses on U.S. political and public policy history since 1945, business-government relations, social entrepreneurship, nonprofit management, fund-raising and constituent communications. His current research focuses on the first 100 days of new chief executives in business, government, and the non-profit sector, and the key drivers of success in transforming recalcitrant bureaucracies.

Joshua Busby is an Assistant Professor of Public Affairs and a fellow with the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service as well as the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law. He originally joined the LBJ School faculty in fall 2006 as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer. Prior to coming to UT, Dr. Busby was a research fellow at the Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School (2005-2006), the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's JFK School (2004-2005), and the Foreign Policy Studies program at the Brookings Institution (2003-2004). He defended his dissertation with distinction in summer 2004 from Georgetown University, where he also earned his M.A. in 2002.

He is currently working on a book manuscript entitled States of Grace: Moral Movements and Foreign Policy. In his book project, Busby seeks to explain why some countries are willing to take on new international commitments championed by principled advocacy groups and others are not. Substantively, he explores the politics of climate change, developing country debt relief, HIV/AIDS, and the International Criminal Court in selected country cases in the advanced industrialized world. He has also written extensively on transatlantic relations, both in international security and the climate change arena. In 2004, Busby and co-author Heiko Borchert won the Foreign Policy Association's Transatlantic Essay Competition. His research interests also include U.S. grand strategy, energy security, and the foreign policy of advanced industrialized countries.

Busby is a Term Member in the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. His works have appeared in International Studies Quarterly, Current History, and Problems of Post-Communism, among other publications.

Busby also has a regional interest in Latin America, having served in the Peace Corps in Ecuador (1997-1999), worked in Nicaragua (Summer 1994, Spring 1996), and consulted for the Inter-American Development Bank (2000). Prior to working with the Peace Corps, he was a Marshall Scholar at the University of East Anglia (Norwich, England), where he completed a second B.A. (with Honors) in Development Studies (1993-1995). He completed his first B.A. (with Highest Distinction) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Political Science and Biology.

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Busby Publications

Deborah Edward brings extensive nonprofit and cultural arts management and consulting experience to the LBJ School’s RGK Center. She holds a B.A. from Antioch College and a M.Ed. in Special Education from the University of Texas at Austin. Edward received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Texas. Her career in the nonprofit sector began as evaluation coordinator for the Center for the Development of Nonformal Education which assisted low income Hispanic families with young children.

Edward was the co-founder and first Executive Director of Austin Children's Museum, which she led for sixteen years. She was also Founding Director of Greenlights for NonProfit Success, which provides management support for Central Texas nonprofits. She has consulted for the National Endowment for the Arts Advancement Program, coordinated the Austin’s Libraries for the Future community strategic planning process, and is part of the consulting team directing the CreateAustin cultural master planning for the City of Austin. She is helping launch Psychology Beyond Borders, an international NGO bringing research, practice, and policy together to better address the psychosocial impact of disasters, terror and war.

Edward consults, lectures, writes and teaches on issues of planning, governance, strategic alliances, fundraising, leadership transitions, program evaluation, philanthropy, social innovation, organizational change and cultural arts. She was a Fulbright Scholar in the Czech Republic in 2005 working with museums and NGO's and has worked with community-based programs and arts organizations in Russia and Eastern Europe. Edward’s current community activities include Board Treasurer for NPower Texas, assisting with mediation training, and volunteering with the Fund for Arts and Culture in Central and Eastern Europe.

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Heather Alden is the Program Coordinator for the Social Innovation Competition. She is charged with promoting social entrepreneurship as a pathway for students of all majors to consider careers in public service. Ms. Alden also manages the Frances Moody Newman Distinguished Lecture Series.

Prior to joining the RGK team, Ms. Alden spent 5 years as a grassroots organizer and lobbyist in the nonprofit sector, and equal time in a dot com career as a web producer.

Ms. Alden received her undergraduate degrees in English and Journalism from Texas A & M University.

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Moira Porter, M.P.Aff, is the Program Coordinator for Executive Education. She develops open enrollment and customized programs to connect the expertise of the RGK Center with practitioners in the nonprofit sector. Her experience includes 5 years of nonprofit governance, as well as financial management and development. Ms. Porter received degrees from Bryn Mawr College and the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

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Peggy Randow serves as the office manager for the RGK Center and assistant to Peter Frumkin. Prior to joining the RGK Center at its inception, Ms. Randow worked as graduate coordinator of the U.T. Art History department and as a faculty assistant in the U.T. College of Engineering.

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Sarah Krueger is the Marketing Specialist for the RGK Center. She is charged with the development and implementation of all marketing activities for the Center. Ms. Krueger received her MA in Advertising from The University of Texas at Austin, and her undergraduate degrees in Advertising and Art & Design from Iowa State University.

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Anastasia Kolendo is a Research Associate working on the cultural infrastructure project. The project, a collaboration between RGK and NORC at the University of Chicago, seeks to examine the rationale for and the impact of the recent museum and performing arts building boom. Before coming to the RGK Center, Ms. Kolendo was a Research Associate at Harvard Business School and a Business Analyst with McKinsey & Co. Her nonprofit experience includes teaching children imaginative writing for Badgerdog Literary Publishing in Austin. She has a BA in English from Swarthmore College and an MFA in fiction from Boston University. Her work has mostly recently appeared in Best New American Voices 2009.

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Jinwoo Lee, M.A., is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology and a pre-doctoral trainee at the Population Research Center. His research interest encompasses social demography, health, aging and religion, especially focusing on the comparative studies of Mediterranean countries and South Korea on the issue of very low fertility. At the RGK Center, Jinwoo is working with Sarah Jane Rehnborg, Ph.D. to explore the effects of Service Learning on the development of Jewish identity among young Jewish adults.