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Axelle Marjolin

Axelle Marjolin

PhD Candidate
Arts, Design & Architecture
Social Policy Research Centre

Email: a.marjolin@unsw.edu.au

Supervisors: Natasha Cortis, Carla Treloar, Abigail Powell

I am passionate about using research as a means to make a positive difference; I believe that by understanding how to work together effectively, we can understand how to improve outcomes and deliver beneficial social impact. Working as a Social Researcher since 2012, I have been involved in a range of academic and applied research projects exploring the organisation of the Australian charity sector, the processes necessary for creating and measuring social impact, and the delivery and evaluation of services aimed at addressing social problems (e.g., financial exclusion).
My doctoral research seeks to progress current understandings of the nature of the relationships between nonprofit organisations and their philanthropic funders. The goal is to move both research and practice forward, in the search for more efficient and sustainable ways to address social problems. Using the perceptions of nonprofit leaders that received support from philanthropists adopting a high-engagement approach, my thesis investigates the relational factors that shape nonprofit organisations' experiences of philanthropic support. Overall, my research challenges the dominant view that nonprofit-philanthropy relationships are characterized by coercion grounded in the control of resources. Drawing on the theory of soft power, my research shows that power dynamics in donor-grantee relationship are co-optive and linked to social dimensions, specifically nonprofit representatives’ views of philanthropic funders as allies, and philanthropy as an act of benevolence. Recognising that power in nonprofit-philanthropy relationships is at least in part social in nature provides new knowledge to help build more egalitarian and mutually beneficial donor-grantee relationships.