John G. Simon - PONPO Award

The Program on Nonprofit Organizations announces that it awarded the John G. Simon - PONPO Award for Research on Nonprofit Organizations to Graeme Auld. The Award commemorates PONPO’s 30th anniversary in 2008 and is named to honor PONPO’s founding director, John G. Simon, Augustus E. Lines Professor Emeritus of Law. The cash prize of $5,000 was intended to fund research on nonprofits outside of the United States, particularly with respect to their impact in the developing world. Research projects were evaluated based on relevance to PONPO’s mission and potential contribution to the study of nonprofit organizations.

The Award supported Mr. Auld's comparative study of certification programs in the coffee, fishery and forestry sectors, "The Origins and Growth of Social and Environmental Certification Organizations: Comparative Lessons from the Coffee, Fisheries and Forestry Sectors," which he presented in the PONPO Seminar Series on October 9, 2007.

Mr. Auld is a a Ph.D. candidate at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He holds a M.S. from Auburn University and a B.S. in Forestry from the University of British Columbia. His research examines factors and processes driving the origins, uptake and diffusion of emerging social and environmental certification programs both across and within sectors. His recent publications include “Choosing How to be Green: An Examination of Domtar Inc.’s Approach to Forest Certification,” in the Journal of Strategic Management Education, 2006; and Governing Through Markets: Forest Certification and the Emergence of Non-State Authority (with Benjamin Cashore and Deanna Newsom) published by Yale University Press in 2004.

The Award is supported by the Rocekfeller Brothers Fund.