Hans Peter Schmitz

Hans Peter Schmitz serves as the Bob and Carol Mattocks Distinguished Professor in Nonprofit Leadership at North Carolina State University. He does research on international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and global advocacy focused on human rights, global health, or economic equity. In his recent work, he explores the role of digital media and billionaire philanthropy in shaping the broader context of global activism. The scholarship emphasizes how institutional and normative constraints often prevent INGOs from accomplishing their lofty missions. The approach emphasizes spoken and written practitioner perspectives, including how they understand their accountability, the effectiveness of their actions, how they think about advancing social justice, and how they prepare for, and respond to, changing external conditions.

He received his PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the European University Institute in San Domenico di Fiesole/Italia. Recent research outputs include the co-authored book Between Power and Irrelevance. The Future of Transnational NGOs (Oxford University Press, 2020). This book represents the accumulation of funded research completed during his time as Research Director of the Transnational NGO Initiative at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs/Syracuse University.