Dr Alexandra Williamson
Faculty of Business & Law,
School of Accountancy
Biography
Alexandra is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies (ACPNS). Her research interests focus on the accountability of philanthropic foundations, and place-based approaches to giving. Alex completed her PhD in mid-2019, exploring the accountability of Public Ancillary Funds. She holds a Master of Business (Philanthropy and Social Investment) from Swinburne University of Technology, and a Master of Business (Research) from QUT looking at the accountability of Private Ancillary Funds. Alex has more than a decade of experience working in the philanthropic sector in Melbourne, first with one of Australia’s largest private foundations, and then within the charitable trusts team of a national trustee company. Alex was part of the research team working on Giving Australia 2015-2016, the largest ever Australian study into philanthropic giving. She is a member of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR), Australia New Zealand Third Sector Research (ANZTSR), and is an Editor of the journal Third Sector Review.Personal details
Positions
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Faculty of Business & Law,
School of Accountancy
Keywords
philanthropy, philanthropic foundations, structured giving, philanthropic organisations, accountability, private ancillary funds, public ancillary funds, nonprofit organisations, charitable trusts, giving
Discipline
Accounting, Auditing and Accountability, Sociology, Policy and Administration
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- PhD (Queensland University of Technology)
- PhD (Queensland University of Technology)
Professional memberships and associations
Member of the International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR) International member of the Canadian Philanthropy Partnership Research Network (PhiLab)
Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)
Teaching
Alex was an HDR Peer Adviser within QUT's Student Success Group during 2018, delivering workshops and two weekly writing circles to PhD and Masters by Research students across all QUT faculties.
Experience
Three-month industry internship with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) from February to May, 2019. Foci of the internship were the promotion of visibility and accountability within the philanthropic sector in Australia; and the series of national expert workshops held in the first half of 2019 around measures to capture the objectives of part 1b) of the ACNC Act (2012).
Selected publications
- Williamson A, Luke B, Furneaux C, (2021) Perceptions and conceptions of ‘place’ in Australian public foundations, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 50 (6).
- Williamson A, Leat D, (2021) Playing piggy(bank) in the middle: Philanthropic foundations’ roles as intermediaries, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 80 (4), pp. 965-976.
- Seibert K, Williamson A, Moran M, (2021) Voluntary sector peak bodies during the COVID-19 crisis: a case study of Philanthropy Australia, Voluntary Sector Review, 12 (1), pp. 143-154.
- Godfrey J, Williamson A, (2020) The impact of recessions on fundraising: A systematic review of the literature, Third Sector Review, 26 (1), pp. 6-33.
- Williamson A, Luke B, Furneaux C, (2021) Ties that bind: Public foundations in dyadic partnerships, Voluntas, 32 (2).
- McGregor-Lowndes M, Williamson A, (2018) Foundations in Australia: Dimensions for international comparison, American Behavioral Scientist, 62 (13), pp. 1759-1776.
- Leat D, Williamson A, Scaife W, (2018) Grantmaking in a disorderly world: The limits of rationalism, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 77 (1), pp. 128-135.
- Williamson A, Luke B, Furneaux C, (2018) Why be accountable? Exploring voluntary accountability of Australian private ancillary funds, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 77 (3), pp. 375-391.
- Williamson A, Luke B, Leat D, Furneaux C, (2017) Founders, families, and futures: Perspectives on the accountability of Australian Private Ancillary Funds, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 46 (4), pp. 747-771.
- Williamson A, Leat D, Scaife W, (2017) Narratives of performance measurement in philanthropic foundations, Voluntary Sector Review, 8 (3), pp. 273-298.
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Alexandra, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Awards
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2021
- Details
- 2021 Outstanding Reviewer Award from the PNP Division of the Academy of Management. This award is given to 10 reviewers annually and is sponsored by the Public Management Research Association.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2020
- Details
- Recipient of the Executive Dean's Commendation for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award for 2019
- Type
- Editor/Contributor of a Prestigious Work of Reference
- Reference year
- 2016
- Details
- The Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy was awarded the 2016 Virginia Hodgkinson Research Book Award, awarded by the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) for the best book on the nonprofit sector that informs policy and practice. The book presents and analyses the geographic, geopolitical, and cultural differences in 26 countries based on contributions by 55 scholars from world-renowned universities from all over the world. I was a co-author on the country chapter for Australia.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2011
- Details
- Professor John O. Miller, AO Award for Academic Excellence in the Master of Social Science (Philanthropy & Social Investment), Swinburne University of Technology
Supervision
Current supervisions
- Does CEO, Board, and Organizational Virtue Influence Firm Misconduct?
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Ellie Chapple - Donor intent, charitable accountability, and natural disasters: exploring the 2019 Kangaroo Island Bushfires case
MPhil, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Wendy Scaife - Governance and the Financial Performance of Charitable Foundations
MPhil, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Yuyu Zhang