The Science of Generosity

Femida Handy serves as Professor of Nonprofit Studies at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy and Practice, where she currently directs the Ph.D. program in Social Welfare. Her distinguished career includes serving as Editor-in-chief of the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly for six years, establishing her as a leading voice in nonprofit sector research. Her scholarly work spans multiple disciplines, collaborating with experts from sociology, business, medicine, and engineering to examine various aspects of philanthropy and volunteering. Her significant contributions to the field include co-editing the award-winning Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy (2016), which received the Virginia A. Hodgkinson Research Book Prize, and co-authoring influential works such as Philanthropy in India: Promise to Practice (2016) and Ethics for Social Impact (2018). Her research interests encompass the economics of the nonprofit sector, volunteering patterns, global philanthropy, and environmental behaviors, earning her multiple "best research paper of the year" awards from various journals. Before joining Penn, she held a position as Associate Professor at York University's Faculty of Environmental Studies in Toronto, where she maintains the position of Senior Scholar. Her current research projects include studies on intergenerational transmission of environmental behaviors, the benefits of volunteering for autistic youth, and the health impacts of volunteering among various populations.