Key Projects, Awards, and Grants

Our commitment to advancing leaders in the public interest at the Evans School goes beyond the work of our research and outreach centers. Our faculty is among the top in the public policy and management fields when it comes to cutting-edge research and outreach. We make this work available to the public through key projects such as:

Public Service Clinics match the research interests of Evans School students with needed projects among regional public and non-profit agencies for producing things such as program evaluations, strategic plans, policy analyses, and new program designs.

Civic Engagement for the 21st Century aims to create a model of civic engagement that emphasizes shared ownership and success for efforts around complex policy issues at the local and national levels. Former Seattle Mayor Norman B. Rice, one of our distinguished practitioners-in-residence, leads the project.

Community Vitality Project works to understand what policies are most effective to reduce poverty and enhance vitality in communities that vary by urban-rural location, in terms of racial and ethnic diversity, and with regard potential economic linkages with surrounding areas.

Urban Institute’s Arts and Culture Indicators in Communities Project provides a model for measuring the value of art in society and the changing landscape of support for artists in a first-of-its-kind statistical portrait of cultural vitality. Assistant Professor Joaquín Herranz, Jr. contributed to this project as a consulting research associate at the Urban Institute.

Evans School Working Papers Series provides access to our faculty members' pre-published research papers.

The Electronic Hallway serves as a reservoir of case studies for those who teach public policy and administration.

Nonprofit Accountability Clubs examines how voluntary programs seek to mitigate agency conflict and resolve agency dilemmas in nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations.

Find out more about the faculty and staff at the Evans School who makes these projects possible.

Community Vitality Project

Understanding Levers to Reduce Poverty for Individuals and Communities

What are key ways to reduce poverty in communities? With funding from the Northwest Area Foundation, researchers from the Evans School are working to understand what policies are most effective in communities that vary by urban-rural location, in terms of racial and ethnic diversity, and with regard potential economic linkages with surrounding areas.

The five-year, $1.5 million Community Vitality Project will produce research papers that analyze the levers that both reduce poverty and enhance community vitality, with the goal of making recommendations for effective policies within the 8 states that the Northwest Area Foundation serves: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa.

Nonprofit Accountability Clubs

Nonprofit Accountability Clubs seeks to better understand the phenomenon of voluntary regulation by nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The scale and scope of work done by these two entities has grown in recent years, resulting in increased governance challenges and the need for more oversight mechanisms.

This project, led by Mary Kay Gugerty, examines how voluntary oversight programs by nonprofits and NGOs can mitigate agency conflict, enhance the confidence of principals in nonprofits, and make reporting requirements less onerous. The research produced aims to answer:

In which sectors and under what conditions do such voluntary programs emerge?
How do these programs shape the behaviors of the principals and the nonprofits?
Who establishes voluntary programs?
Who participates in voluntary programs?

Find out more about related nonprofit accountability research and Mary Kay Gugerty.

Nonprofit Accountability Research

This research is a compilation of papers presented at various Nonprofit Accountability Clubs conferences.

Nonprofit Accountability Clubs: Voluntary Regulation of Nongovernmental and Nonprofit Organizations (377 KB PDF) by Mary Kay Gugerty and Aseem Prakash, Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington

Benefits of Accreditation for Fundraising Nonprofits in the Netherlands (259 KB PDF)by René Bekkers, Utrecht University and Vrije Universitei Amsterdam, Netherlands

A History of Nonprofit Clubs in the United States (291 KB PDF) by Woods Bowman, DePaul University

The Emergence of Collective Accountability Standards in the Humanitarian Sector (390 KB PDF) by Maryam Zarnegar Deloffre, George Washington University

What Determines the Emergence and Structure of Clubs Among State Nonprofit Associations? (250 KB PDF) by Mary Tschirhart, Maxwell School of Syracuse University

Nonprofit Umbrella Associations as Reluctant Clubs (232 KB PDF) by Dennis R. Young, Georgia State University

The Impact of Sponsorship on Club Design (286 KB PDF) by Angela Bies, Texas A&M University

The Emergence of Nonprofit Clubs in Developing Countries (71 KB PDF) by Mary Kay Gugerty, Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington

Does Self-Regulation Work? Some Evidence from Europe (63 KB PDF) Andreas Ortmann of Charles University Economics Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

Can Self-Regulatory Club Goods Serve Mission Accountability? (299 KB PDF) by Dana Brakman Reiser, Brooklyn Law School

Rethinking Advocacy Organizations Concept Paper (312 KB PDF) by Mary Kay Gugerty and Aseem Prakash, Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington

Institutions, Culture and Advocacy Strategies: Comparing Climate Change and Biodiversity Advocacy in Japan, Germany and the United States (100 KB PDF) by Miranda Schreurs, Freie Universität Berlin

The Logic of Advocacy: Strategy and Competition among Organized Interests (92 KB PDF) by McGee Young, Marquette University

The Strategic Use of Branding by Advocacy Groups (88 KB PDF) by Maryann Barakso, American University

Structuring Global Advocacy: Explaining Organizational Change and the Emergence of Transnational Networks (132 KB PDF) by Hans Peter Schmitz, The Maxwell School at Syracuse University

The Market for Human Rights (112 KB PDF) by Clifford Bob, Duquesne University

Institutional Environment and the Organization of Advocacy NGOs in the OECD (112 KB PDF) by Elizabeth A. Bloodgood, Concordia University

Shaping Civic Advocacy: International and Domestic Policies towards Russia’s NGO Sector (92 KB PDF) by Sarah L. Henderson, Oregon State University

Religious Institutions as Transnational Actors: An Economic Approach (102 KB PDF) by Anthony Gill, University of Washington

Find out more about the Nonprofit Accountability Clubs.