BIOGRAPHY

Jennifer Amanda Jones, Ph.D. is the Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Management and Leadership in the Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences. She has a 60% research and 40% teaching appointment. At the undergraduate level, she teaches nonprofit management (FYC4409), nonprofit leadership (FYC4408), and nonprofit human resources (FYC4428). At the graduate level, she teaches nonprofit human resources (FYC6932). She supervises both graduate and undergraduate research.

Dr. Jones’ general research interests include nonprofit management, nonprofit leadership, and philanthropic giving. She specializes in using constructive developmental theory to explain variation in philanthropic giving, and she uses a highly specialized methodological technique—the Subject-Object Interview. Dr. Jones has provided methodology-related consulting to universities and institutions in the United States, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland, and Ireland.

Dr. Jones has published (or has articles forthcoming) in Nonprofit Management and Leadership, the International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, the Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership, and Organisational and Social Dynamics. Her scholarship of teaching and learning publications have been included in journals such as Active Learning in Higher Education and North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture. She has published multiple teaching resources, technical reports (Jones Research), and book chapters, including chapters on nonprofit social media policies and technology in nonprofit human resources.

Dr. Jones received the 2014 Emerging Scholar award from ARNOVA, one of the leading associations for nonprofit sector research. She also won a 2017 Best Conference Paper award from the Academy of Management. Dr. Jones is a member of Nu Lambda Mu, the international honor society for nonprofit scholars, and she was a 2016-2017 Global Teaching Fellow with the Global Education Lab.

Prior to joining the faculty at UF, Dr. Jones was a research associate at the Caster Family Center for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Research where she was involved in highly publicized research projects benchmarking the nonprofit sector in San Diego and in the State of California. Additionally, Dr. Jones has spent more than 15 years working with both domestic and international nonprofit organizations of various types and sizes, including health, human services, education, microfinance, and environmental organizations. She also served on the board of directors for a community foundation. 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

The goal of my research is to create knowledge that can help the nonprofit sector solve complex problems such as poverty, climate change, and more. My primary line of research uses constructive developmental theory to explain philanthropic behavior, particularly as it relates to solving complex problems. Constructive developmental theory suggests that, over the course of a lifetime, adults develop and increasingly complex way of making sense of the world. There are distinct stages to this development, stages that can be empirically measured. My research has demonstrated: a) there is a relationship between developmental level and philanthropic behavior; and b) if not carefully managed, this relationship can lead to decreased gifts to important but complex initiatives (e.g., climate change). Additionally, my research has established that c) individuals engaged in philanthropy can exercise more or less complex ways of thinking than they do in their professional lives; and d) there are factors associated with whether an individual is thinking in a more complex or less complex way. These findings have direct implications for practitioners and, from a theoretical perspective, provide a strong proof of concept to support future research. Additionally, my applied research suggests this knowledge can be used to inform fundraising practice. My research has been published or is forthcoming in journals such as Nonprofit Management and Leadership, International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, and the Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership. One of my related papers won a Best Conference Paper award at the Academy of Management, a top-tier association. Also in service of helping nonprofit organizations address complex problems, my secondary line of research is in the more general area of nonprofit management. Research topics include human resources, social media and social media policies, and charitable giving. My research concentrates on

• Nonprofit Management
• Nonprofit Leadership
• Philanthropy
• Fundraising
• Constructive Developmental Theory
• Qualitative Research