Director of Research

Indiana University Academic Positions•Indianapolis, IN

About The Position

The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy seeks an ambitious, collaborative, and externally oriented leader to serve as Director of Research. The Director will hold a Research Scientist/Research Professor appointment at an open rank, commensurate with qualifications and experience, and serve as a member of the School’s senior leadership team. The Director will lead the School’s research enterprise and help shape its intellectual leadership, strategic growth, partnerships, and impact. Working with the research team, faculty, School institutes and programs, Indiana University colleagues, and partners around the world, the Director will strengthen the School’s position as a global leader in research on philanthropy and generosity. The School’s research foundation includes Giving USA research, the Philanthropy Panel Study, and the Global Philanthropy Indices, as well as work on giving, volunteering, fundraising, philanthropic behavior, institutions, and civil society. The Director will steward these assets while identifying new questions, partnerships, resources, and growth opportunities. The role centers on deepening existing relationships and developing local, national, and global partnerships; connecting the School’s research with faculty and expertise across the field; and ensuring research is rigorous, respected, used, and useful.

Responsibilities

Provide strategic and intellectual leadership for the School’s research portfolio and professional research team, fostering rigor, collaboration, innovation, and impact.
Steward and strengthen signature research endeavors, including Giving USA research, the Philanthropy Panel Study, and the Global Philanthropy Indices, while identifying emerging questions and opportunities for the School to lead.
Encourage innovation in research methods, data, technology, and partnerships while maintaining high standards of research integrity and independence.
Contribute to broader strategy, priority-setting, resource development, and institutional leadership as a member of the School’s senior leadership team.
Make external partnership development central to the School’s research strategy; deepen existing relationships and develop new ones with funders and partners locally, nationally, and globally.
Build a pipeline of collaborative and externally supported research opportunities, including multi-year and multi-partner initiatives.
Work with the School’s Advancement and Professional Development teams to cultivate funders and partners and connect research with philanthropic leadership, professional learning, and practice.
Build partnerships with faculty and create opportunities for faculty expertise and professional research capabilities to reinforce one another.
Collaborate with the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving, Women’s Philanthropy Institute, and Mays Family Institute on Diverse Philanthropy to advance complementary research, partnerships, dissemination, and engagement.
Connect the School with expertise across the field and develop or join strategically beneficial interdisciplinary initiatives.
Represent the School on campus-wide and system-wide research committees and liaise between the university and faculty to promote and advance LFSOP faculty research.
Advance research that illuminates policy possibilities and examines the consequences of policy change for philanthropy, nonprofits, donors, communities, and civil society.
Use the School’s data, research capabilities, and interdisciplinary expertise to provide timely, credible, nonpartisan evidence that informs public understanding and decision-making.
Anticipate changes affecting philanthropy and civil society and position the School to provide research leadership on consequential questions.
Develop innovative approaches to translating and disseminating research for practitioners, donors, nonprofit leaders, policymakers, scholars, journalists, and communities.
Experiment with engagement approaches such as digital and interactive tools, convenings, executive briefings, visualization, media partnerships, and AI-enabled approaches.
Create stronger pathways from research to insight to engagement to action, and develop ways to understand the reach and influence of the School’s research.