Nonprofit Academic Centers Council (NACC) conference 2019
The biennial conference of the Nonprofit Academic Centres Council (NACC) took place at Cass Business School City, University of London from July 16-17.
For the first time held outside of the US, the conference theme focused on ‘Building the Global Nonprofit Education Community: diverse perspectives strengthening the whole’. With keynotes by the Chief Executive of the Charity Commission, the Director of External Affairs of the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF), and the Chief Executive of the Institute of Fundraising (IoF), the conference placed strong emphasis on further strengthening links between nonprofit research and practice.
With a dedicated set of panels on ‘Bridging the researcher-practitioners gap’, Dr Tobias Jung, Director of the Centre for the Study of Philanthropy & Public Good, drew on his own experience with research co-production to talk about the conceptual and practical challenges and opportunities the approach presents. This sat alongside presentations on questions of power and responsibilities in research collaborations, and discussions on the roles played by academic centres in engaging with practice and policy.