Chao Guo is Professor and Faculty Director of the Master’s in Nonprofit Leadership (NPL) Program in the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his PhD in public administration from the University of Southern California, and his BA in international relations from Renmin University of China.
Chao’s research interests focus on the intersection between nonprofit and voluntary action and government. More specifically, he conducts research on the contributions of nonprofit organizations to democratic governance, collaboration within and across sectors, social entrepreneurship, and the role and effects of new media on nonprofit organizations. He has many published articles in highly respected and influential journals and has published two books: Social Entrepreneurship: An Evidence-Based Approach to Creating Social Value (Wiley, 2014; co-authored with Wolfgang Bielefeld); and The Quest for Attention: Nonprofit Advocacy in a Social Media Age (Stanford University Press, 2020; co-authored with Gregory D. Saxton). His research has been recognized by his peers and won awards from multiple disciplines, including the 2021 Best Book Award from the Public and Nonprofit Division of the Academy of Management and the 2022 Outstanding Book Award from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), and the 2022 Editors’ Prize for Best Paper from Nonprofit Management and Leadership.
Chao is actively involved in professional and community service activities. He currently serves as President-Elect of the ARNOVA Board of Directors. Prior to that, he served two terms as a member of the ARNOVA Board (2009-2015). He has also served as Editor-in-Chief of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, the premier journal in the field (2016-2022). Globally, he has helped ARNOVA create a regional conference series in Asia (ARNOVA-Asia). For this effort, he received the Distinguished Achievement and Service Award from ARNOVA in 2019. He has also served as founding co-director of the Institute for Philanthropy & Social Innovation at Renmin University of China (2016-2019).
