PACS 2008-2009 Seminar Series

Professor of Public Affairs and Director of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of On Being Nonprofit: A Conceptual and Policy Primer and Strategic Giving: The Art and Science of Philanthropy, and co-editor of In Search of the Nonprofit Sector. Frumkin has written articles on topics related to nonprofit management, philanthropy, cross-sector partnerships, and service contracting.

Chief Business Writer/US Business Editor of The Economist. He is the author of a new book, Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World, which examines how today’s leading philanthropists are revolutionizing the field, using new methods to have a vastly greater impact on the world. Bishop has written several Economist special survey supplements, including most recently The Business of Giving, which looks at the industrial revolution taking place in philanthropy; Kings of Capitalism, which anticipated and analyzed the recent boom in private equity; and Capitalism and its Troubles, an examination of the impact of problems such as the collapse of Enron.

Founder and CEO of Civic Ventures, a think tank helping society achieve the greatest return on experience.  He spearheaded creation of the Experience Corps, America's largest nonprofit national service program engaging individuals over 55, and The Purpose Prize, the nation's biggest investment in older social innovators.

Former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from its inception in 1997 until August 2008 and currently serves as Senior Advisor to trustees Warren Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates. In addition, Stonesifer has served on the Board of Regents for the Smithsonian Institution since 2001 and is currently its Chair.

 

Civil Society and the Fate of the Commons.

 

Visiting Scholar and Lecturer at Stanford. Sievers teaches a course on “Theories of Civil Society, Philanthropy, and the Nonprofit Sector” in the Political Science Department.  Having headed philanthropic organizations for over three decades, he served as executive director of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund from 1983 to 2002.  Sievers has written and spoken on a wide range of topics in philanthropy, often as a critical commentator on the normative implications of current trends in the field.  

 

Prior to February 2008, Dean Zerbe was for over seven years the Senior Counsel and Tax Counsel for the Senate Finance Committee working for the Chairman and now Ranking Member of the Committee – Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA).  In that position, Dean was responsible for the Committee’s groundbreaking and widely publicized investigations of numerous charities – including American Red Cross, United Way, The Nature Conservancy, Smithsonian, Getty Museum, American University, nonprofit hospitals, etc.  The Committee’s oversight work led to significant changes in the laws governing nonprofits as well as leading to the IRS making major changes in its work and priorities including a recent complete rewrite of the Form 990.
 
Dean is widely recognized as a leading authority on charities and charitable governance.  In addition Dean is a tax attorney, receiving a J.D. from George Mason University (high honors) and an LL.M. (Tax) from New York University.   Mr. Zerbe is currently National Managing Director for alliantgroup, LLC – a Houston-based company that is the leading provider of tax services to small and medium businesses.   He is a columnist on tax issues for Forbes.com and volunteers as a National Board Member for the American Lung Association and as Special Counsel for the National Whistleblower Center.

Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law at Stanford University.  She is one of the nation’s leading scholars in the fields of legal ethics and gender, law, and public policy.  An author of 20 books, including Women and Leadership and Moral Leadership, Rhode is the most frequently-cited scholar in legal ethics.  She will speak on ethics in the nonprofit sector.