Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations
The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University seeks to expand understanding and accelerate critical thinking about civil society among scholars, practitioners, policy makers and the general public, by encouraging scholarship, developing curriculum, fostering mutual learning between academics and practitioners, and shaping policies that enhance the sector and its role in society. The Hauser Center was established by Rita Hauser and her husband Gustave M. Hauser in 1997. Located at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the Center's concerns include philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, voluntarism, and civil society. The Center provides an intellectual home  for faculty, research fellows, visiting scholars, and students across the university who share interests in these topics. The Center hosts several regular seminars during the academic year on topics of interest to the nonprofit community as well as those that are part of the Center's research projects. It hosts special events beyond Harvard, such as the NGO Leaders Forum, a semi-annual retreat for chief executives of major U.S.-based international relief and development NGOs. It also brings leaders of nonprofit institutions to Harvard, such as its senior research fellows Jim Bildner, L. David Brown, Steven Lawry, Peter Bell, Jennifer  McCrea, and Marion Fremont-Smith. Programs and Projects. The Hauser Center's programs and projects engage scholars and practitioners interested in the nonprofit field on a variety of topics. The Center hosts three important blogs: Humanitarian and Development Nonprofit Organizations, Nonprofits in China and Nonprofit News & Comment. People. Christine Letts is currently the Interim Faculty Director, having assumed the faculty leadership position following Christopher Stone, who served as Faculty Director from 2008–2012. Aviva Luz Argote serves as executive director. Other notable faculty members include Mark Moore, Marion Fremont-Smith, Marshall Ganz, Christopher Winship, Peter Dobkin Hall, Archon Fung, Herman "Dutch