After a 14 year career in the Canadian nonprofit sector, I started studying charities to understand the relationships between charities and the groups that shape them through regulation, funding, and rhetoric. These groups include individual and institutional donors, groups of other charities (including self-regulation schemes), and governments. In particular, I am interested in how these groups use charities to say something about themselves and what is important to them.

Charity Political Expressiveness

• The political expressiveness of charitable sectors in comparative perspective: Canada and its provinces and the UK and its countries. This is my postdoctoral project at the University of St Andrews, funded by a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship (Supervisor: Tobias Jung).

Lobbying, Advocacy, and Political Activities

• How and when do whole-of-sector charitable sector advocacy mechanisms emerge? (PI: Susan Phillips).
• Understanding how changes in charity regulations affect charity reports of their engagement in political activities (PI: Nathan Grasse).

Charity Finances

• Identifying and describing charitable foundations in Scotland using administrative data (PI: Tobias Jung).
• Examining the financial capacity of Canadian charities (PI: Nathan Grasse).

Charity Political Expressiveness

• To what extent is the Canadian charitable sector a politically expressive sector? This was my PhD dissertation project at Carleton University, funded in part by a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (Supervisor: Susan Phillips).

Charity Finances

• Understanding the effects of core funding on charitable innovation (PI: Susan Phillips).
• Understanding what makes charities financially resilient (PI: Susan Phillips).
• Examining fundraising efficiency at STARS Foundation (with Kirk Schmidt).

Charity Governance

• Assessing the governance standards of the Imagine Canada Standards Program and recommending changes based on academic literature (PI: Nathan Grasse).
• Understanding the effects of the Imagine Canada Standards Program on participating organizations (PI: Susan Phillips).

Volunteerism

• A series of projects in paid and voluntary roles. Most of my professional experience in the charitable sector has been in roles that included some element of leading, managing, supporting, and training volunteers.

2024 - PhD in Public Policy
Carleton University, Ottawa, ON.

2019 - Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership
Carleton University, Ottawa, ON.

2016 - Certified in Volunteer Administration
Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration.

2014 - Bachelor of Applied Nonprofit Studies
Mount Royal University, Calgary, AB.