The Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy at the University of Southern California conducts research on philanthropy and nonprofits. The center maintains a list of experts on philanthropy, both national and local.

The Center for Effective Philanthropy conducts research and gathers data on nonprofit groups to help philanthropists make effective donations. In October 2009, the center hosted an event in San Francisco titled “Foundation Effectiveness in a New Reality.” Contact through the website.

Read a Sept. 29, 2009, Associated Press story (posted by the National Conference on Citizenship) about the recession’s effect on social service charities, some of them religion-based.

Read a July 9, 2009, story in The Christian Post about a survey showing that Christian nonprofits are increasingly relying on volunteers. The study, conducted by J. David Schmidt & Associates for the Christian Leadership Alliance, showed that one out of five Christian nonprofits is relying on volunteers to offset labor and income losses due to the recession.

Read a July 2009 Religion News Service story (posted by the Adventist Review) about the closing of Michigan-based Christian relief group International Aid due to financial woes, and job cuts at World Vision, one of the largest evangelical relief agencies.

Read a May 2009 cover story in Christianity Today about how non-profit organizations fared during the recession.

Jennifer McKinney is an associate professor of sociology at Seattle Pacific University. At the 2009 annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, she made a presentation titled “Real Men Don’t Wear Sweater Vests: Masculinity in an Evangelical Megachurch.”

Gary McIntosh is professor of Christian ministry and leadership at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif. He is also a consultant and the author of 13 books on church growth.

Carson Mencken is a sociology professor at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and one of the authors of the Baylor Religion Survey released in 2008. He can discuss its findings on megachurches.