About Kirsten Grønbjerg

Over nearly 30 years at the O’Neill School, Kirsten Grønbjerg has left an indelible mark on countless students’ lives and on the entire field of voluntary sector studies.

A native of Denmark, Kirsten earned a BA in sociology from Pitzer College, Claremont, California, and her master's and PhD in sociology at the University of Chicago. Kirsten was recruited to Indiana University to grow its emerging nonprofit management program at a time when there were fewer than 20 such programs in the U.S. She succeeded in every respect—teaching fund development and nonprofit sector courses; raising the program’s ranking to #1 in the nation; and recruiting more than a dozen faculty members.

Kirsten’s scholarly work addresses the theory, scope, and dimensions of the nonprofit sector. Focusing mainly on the U.S. context, she has applied her demographic skills to pioneer more accurate methods of measuring local voluntary sector activity. For many years, with a team of graduate students, she carried out annual statewide surveys that made Indiana the most closely studied state in the nation with respect to nonprofit activity. These studies examined government relations, the impact of the Great Recession and the COVID pandemic on nonprofit capacity, employment trends, nonprofit property tax policy, and many other phenomena.

National and international honors include membership in the National Academy of Public Administration, and receipt of her learned society’s highest honor, the Distinguished Achievement Award, by the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action. She has served in advisory roles for dozens of institutions that are vital to the health of the nonprofit sector, including the Aspen Institute, Volcker Alliance, Internal Revenue Service, Giving USA Foundation, Urban Institute, Guidestar, Independent Sector, YMCA, United Way, National Association of State Charity Officials, as well as the philanthropy education programs of many universities.

Kirsten’s service contributions to her academic field and to Indiana University have been legendary—possibly record-setting in quantity and quality of service. It was therefore fitting that Kirsten became the inaugural recipient of the Bloomington campus's M.A. “Venkat” Venkataramanan Distinguished Service Award in 2023. She served in school administrative leadership with three deans, including a brief stint as interim dean in 2000, which is a testament to her stature among her colleagues. But most of her prodigious service has been non-administrative, ranging from university presidential searches to curricular committees and reflecting her commitment to faculty self-governance and her willingness to practice good academic citizenship. Engrained in her service philosophy is a very Danish (in her own words) “commitment to the collective."

Make your gift today, and be part of a legacy that turns "what ifs" into "what is" in the world of nonprofit leadership!

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