Building on research that nonprofits have distinct characteristics that influence their behavior, the Nonprofit Ethics Lab seeks to define and develop nonprofit ethics as a distinct field of research, education, and practice. The Lab is conducting a systematic literature review to identify a research agenda, and input from nonprofit executives will shape a training program. The Lab will also act as a collaborator and convener - across secular and faith-based nonprofits across the globe - to strengthen a community of practice around nonprofit ethics.
Isabel de Bruin Cardoso
Isabel de Bruin Cardoso founded the Gradel Institute of Charity’s Non-profit Ethics Lab based on her PhD research, which explored how characteristics unique to non-profits can explain their unethical behaviour. She conceptualised and empirically tested the "NGO halo effect", showing how a non-profit’s mission, morals, and people can be idealised in ways that blind the organisation to its unethical behaviour. Before her PhD, Isabel spent over 15 years working with a wide range of non-profits, including NGOs, religious congregations, philanthropic foundations, the UN, and the World Bank.
Over time, she noticed that their moral missions and strategies, such as codes of conduct, safeguarding training, and whistleblowing systems did not prevent unethical behaviour. This led her to doctoral research and, ultimately, to establish the Lab — to explore what nonp-rofit ethics means as a distinct field of study and practice. The Lab is rooted in Isabel's experience that research and practice must convene and collaborate to develop an understanding of ethics and approaches to managing it that are fit for purpose in the non-profit sector.
Isabel received her PhD in Management from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, where she continues to lecture and research. She is also a visiting lecturer at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. She sits on various non-profit boards, and has been published in academic, trade, and practitioner journals, as well as newspapers.
1. De Bruin Cardoso, I., Russell, A. R., Kaptein, M., & Meijs, L. (2023). How moral goodness drives unethical behavior: Empirical evidence for the NGO halo effect. Nonvoluntary Sector Quarterly, 53(3), 589-614.
2. De Bruin Cardoso, I. (2024, October). Navigating the halo effect: Balancing morality and ethical risks in purpose-driven organizations. Compliance, Ethics & Sustainability, 4, pp.196-200.
3. De Bruin Cardoso, I. (2024, November 20). The severity of Smyth’s abuse was downplayed because of a belief in his goodness. The Tablet