Nathan Dietz

Nathan Dietz, PhD, is a research professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, research director at the Do Good Institute, and a co-investigator for the interdisciplinary Maryland Democracy Initiative. Dietz joined the University in March 2017 after over twenty years of conducting and managing research projects in government, the nonprofit sector and academia. His research focuses on social capital, volunteering, charitable contributions, civic engagement and social entrepreneurship. In addition, he has an extensive record of service both within and outside of the university, and has been widely quoted and frequently invited to participate in public conversations about philanthropy, civic engagement and the nonprofit sector.

Dietz is the author or coauthor of all of DGI’s published research reports, and currently leads a multidisciplinary team of university researchers who are providing evaluation services to the State of Maryland’s Department of Service and Civic Innovation. He recently led externally funded research projects on strategic volunteer engagement and the social determinants of generosity. His recent publications include articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Nonprofit Management and Leadership, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, the American Journal of Community Psychology, and Nonprofit Policy Forum. He currently serves as Associate Editor for Quantitative Methodology for Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

From 2013 until 2017, Dietz held an appointment as senior research associate at the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute. While at Urban, he served as principal investigator for several research and evaluation projects, including four evaluations of AmeriCorps grantees; served the associate director for the National Center for Charitable Statistics, the national clearinghouse of data on the nonprofit sector in the United States; and led the center’s participation in the (nonprofit) Fundraising Effectiveness Project and the Fourth Sector Mapping Initiative.

Immediately prior to joining the Urban Institute, Dietz served as senior program manager at the Partnership for Public Service. From 2002 through 2012, he worked at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS; now called AmeriCorps), serving from 2011-2012 as associate director for research and evaluation. Prior to government service, he held an appointment as assistant professor of political science in the School of Public Affairs at American University. He earned a master’s degree and a PhD in political science from the University of Rochester and earned a bachelor’s degree with dual major in political science and mathematical methods in social sciences from Northwestern University.