Dr Alexandra Williamson
Faculty of Business & Law,
School of Accountancy
Biography
Alexandra is a Senior 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 Co-Editor of the journal Third Sector Review, a member of the Editorial Board of Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, and a Non-Executive Director of Australia & New Zealand Third Sector Research (ANZTSR).
Alex is also a member of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR), and the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM).
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Personal details
Positions
- Adjunct Senior Lecturer
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
Research field
Accounting, auditing and accountability, Sociology
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- PhD (Queensland University of Technology)
- MPhil (Queensland University of Technology)
- MBus (Philanthropy & Social Investment) (Swinburne 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)
Publications
Research outputs by year
- Hogan, A. & Williamson, A. (2023). Mapping categories of philanthropy in Australian public schooling. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 44(5), 651–666. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/230014
- Williamson, A., Kingston, K. & Bennison, L. (2022). Similar or Different? Downward Accountability Across Civil Society Organisational Forms. Voluntas, 33(5), 1002–1014. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/227594
- Williamson, A. & Luke, B. (2021). Exploring the accountability and organizational identity of public philanthropic foundations. International Journal of Management Reviews, 23(3), 394–410. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/209954
- Williamson, A. & Luke, B. (2021). Mapping the field of public ancillary funds. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 80(4), 748–768. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/213528
- Williamson, A., Luke, B. & Furneaux, C. (2021). Perceptions and conceptions of 'place' in Australian public foundations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 50(6). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/208913
- Williamson, A. & Kingston, K. (2021). Performance measurement, evaluation and accountability in public philanthropic foundations. Evaluation Journal of Australasia, 21(2), 101–119. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/209194
- Williamson, A. & Leat, D. (2021). Playing piggy(bank) in the middle: Philanthropic foundations’ roles as intermediaries. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 80(4), 965–976. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/208151
- Williamson, A., Luke, B. & Furneaux, C. (2021). Ties that bind: Public foundations in dyadic partnerships. Voluntas, 32(2), 234–246. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/203475
- 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), 143–154. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/207487
- Williamson, A. & Luke, B. (2020). Agenda-setting and public policy in private foundations. Nonprofit Policy Forum, 11(1). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/198074
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