The Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy at Plymouth University will become the Hartsook Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy, as it receives just under £700,000 ($1m) from a United States based global fundraising consulting organisation.
The CSP has been given the money from Hartsook to help expand its work in the field of philanthropic psychology. The centre has today announced that it will be renamed the Hartsook Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy.
Adrian Sargeant (pictured) will continue as the centre’s director, alongside Professor Jen Shang as director of research.
The centre plans to dramatically expand its international reach, which already includes research contracts and teaching in the UK, US, Norway, Ireland and Australia.
The money will be used to create more PhD studentships, and explore ways to establish the centre’s first undergraduate programme, with a view to it becoming the world’s first School of Sustainable Philanthropy by 2020.
Hartsook is based in Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest employee-owned fundraising consulting organisation in the world. Founded in 1987, it has over 100 team members worldwide. It has served charitable organisations in the United Kingdom, every US state, 29 European countries, India, Australia, Canada, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Chile.
Hartsook was founded, and remains chaired by, Bob Hartsook. The organisation is worth more than $20m, and has also created the Hartsook chair of fundraising at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University and the Hartsook Institutes for Fundraising at Avila University in Kansas City, which now offers the only online master of fundraising in the world.
Matt Beem, president and chief executive of Hartsook, said: “Adrian, Jen and their team bring unparalleled academic experience and insight to their work. Their commitment to enhancing the quality of the donor experience by equipping fundraisers around the world with research-based tools is consistent with Hartsook’s goal to grow philanthropy by improving educational opportunities available to fundraisers. This gift formalizes our global commitment and affirms our belief that those who ask for charitable support must have first given themselves.”
Beem serves on the Hartsook Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy board of advisors, while Professor Sargeant previously held the Hartsook chair in fundraising at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
Sargeant said: “This donation is a major endorsement of our work, and recognition it is having a genuine global impact on both philanthropists and fundraising professionals.
"It gives us the chance to explore avenues for future growth, including new research and teaching programmes at both the undergraduate and Masters level. It also gives us our first physical presence in the United States, allowing us to respond to donor needs globally and to address our core mission of enhancing the quality of their philanthropic experience.”
