Awards

Bicentennial Medal - 2021

Distinguished Professor (Emeritus) - 2019

Titled Professor - 2001 - 2017

Efroymson Chair in Philanthropy

About Kirsten A. Grønbjerg

Kirsten A. Grønbjerg holds the Efroymson chair in Philanthropy at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and is Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Professor of Philanthropic Studies at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, and adjunct professor of sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington. She has held faculty appointments at Loyola University Chicago (where she also served as chair of the Department of Sociology-Anthropology), the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and Hofstra University.

A native of Denmark, she earned an undergraduate degree in sociology at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA, and MA and Ph.D. degrees in sociology at the University of Chicago. Her interests focus on the structure of public and nonprofit human service systems and she is the author of a number of books, articles and reports on the nonprofit sector, nonprofit funding relations, and American welfare policies. She is currently working on a major project to examine the scope and community dimensions of the Indiana nonprofit sector. She has completed research on public-nonprofit funding relations in areas of interest to nonprofit organizations, how nonprofit organizations manage funding relations, the facility needs of nonprofit human service organizations, the child and youth service funding system, and public and philanthropic planning and funding structures in human services.

An award-winning author, she is a member of a number of research committees on philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, social policy, and needs assessment, including the National Committee for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute, Guidestar, and Independent Sector, and is Past-Copresident of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). She is also active in a number of human service organizations.

In 2021, Kirsten Grønbjerg was presented the Bicentennial Medal for her distinguished service to Indiana University.