Arjen de Wit is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Philanthropic Studies at VU Amsterdam, where he mainly studies philanthropic giving, nonprofit revenues, volunteering, and social productivity.

A ‘socially productive’ activity can be defined as any contribution of time – either paid or unpaid – that contributes to a social or public good. In his research on social productivity, Arjen studies, amongst others, the effects of volunteering for the well-being of the volunteer, and the value of unpaid activities for people on social assistance benefits. Of particular interest are new forms of social productivity, including online activities and informal helping. This research aims to contribute to public discussions about the value of paid and unpaid work in a post-capitalist society.

Arjen is also involved in a research project on the effects of unrestricted income on the work of charities. While most income from philanthropic funders and governments are earmarked, there is increasing interest among funders to give more flexible funding. By studying the effects of unrestricted funding, this research contributes to actionable knowledge for charities and philanthropic funders on the benefits and downsides of unrestricted funding in different contexts.

Arjen did his PhD at VU’s Center for Philanthropic Studies on the effects of government subsidies on charitable giving to nonprofit organizations. He teaches Sociology courses at both the Bachelor and the Master level. While he is trained as a quantitative researcher and has ample experience with analysing longitudinal survey data, Arjen increasingly applies interpretative and computational methods. 

Three articles:

Wiepking, P., & De Wit, A. (2024). ‘Unrestricted funding and nonprofit capacities: Developing a conceptual model’. Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 34(4), 801-824. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21592

De Wit, A., Qu, H. & Bekkers, R. (2022). ‘The health advantage of volunteering is larger for older and less healthy volunteers in Europe: a mega-analysis’. European Journal of Ageing, 19, 1189-1200. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-022-00691-5

De Wit, A., & Bekkers, R. (2017). ‘Government Support and Charitable Donations: A Meta-Analysis of the Crowding-Out Hypothesis’. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 27(2), 301-319. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muw044