Indiana University Creates Its First Philanthropy Chair.

Kirsten A. Gronbjerg was selected as the first scholar to hold the Efroymson Chair in Philanthropy at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. The Efroymson Chair is the Center's first endowed chair and one of only a small number of endowed chairs in philanthropy in the nation.

Endowed chairs are considered the most prestigious honor in higher education because chair holders are nominated by a group of their peers.

The Efroymson Chair was established last year by The Indianapolis Foundation, an affiliate of Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF), to honor the Efroymson family and its commitment to Indianapolis. The foundation endowed the academic chair in the amount of $1 million.

Gronbjerg will be the chairholder from 2001 to 2006. She is a professor of Public and Environmental Affairs and of Philanthropic Studies at Indiana University and is chair of the Center on Philanthropy's Research Committee.

As the Efroymson chairholder, she will work with nonprofit organizations, students, and scholars to develop solutions for community issues as part of a broader effort to examine the scope and community dimensions of the Indiana nonprofit sector.

Her work as chairholder is intended to bridge philanthropic studies and nonprofit management activities at two university campuses Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and Indiana University Bloomington.

Gronbjerg's research, while focusing on Indiana and the Indianapolis region, is intended to have implications for nonprofits and community organizations that are facing shifting funding patterns, major new policy initiatives, increasing demands for efficiency and accountability, and changing volunteer habits.