Dr. Beth Breeze co-founded the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent in the UK. in 2008 and became director in 2012. Her research is focused on individual giving and asking. She has researched and written 8 editions of the annual Coutts Million Pound Donor Report, co-authored two well-received books: Richer Lives: why rich people give (2013) and The Logic of Charity: Great Expectations in Hard Times (2015), and is co-editor of The Philanthropy Reader, to be published in June 2016. Having been awarded a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship, she is now writing up the findings of that 3 year research project in The New Fundraisers: who organizes generosity in contemporary society?
Dr. Breeze’s work has been published in a range of academic journals including Public Management Review, the International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, Voluntary Sector Review and Sociologia e Politiche Sociali. Dr. Breeze has also written a wide range of research reports including ‘How Donors Choose Charities’, ‘User Views of Fundraising’, and ‘Fundraising for Unpopular Causes’. She has studied family business philanthropists, giving circles, philanthropy across the life-course and corporate philanthropy on the shop floor.
Having worked in the charity sector for a decade at the start of her career, Dr. Breeze is committed to building bridges between practitioners and academia. She frequently speaks at charity sector events, and regularly contributes to discussions about philanthropy on TV, radio, online news, broadsheet and print media.
Centre website: http://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/philanthropy/
Personal website: http://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/staff/academic/a-b/breeze-beth.html
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Current position
Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, and Director of the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent in the UK.
Previous positions
Research fellow, University of Kent (2010-12)
Charity fundraising, management and research roles (1997-2010).
Dissertation
‘’More than Money: the social meaning of philanthropy in contemporary U.K. society” (2011, supervisor Prof. Frank Furedi)
Education
MA Social Anthropology (University of St Andrews)
MSc Voluntary Sector Organisation (LSE), PhD Sociology (University of Kent)
Research productivity
4 books, 7 international scientific publications, 5 book chapters, 16 research reports
Citations
Google Scholar 206