Chao Guo is Associate Professor of Nonprofit Management in the School of Social Policy and Practice, and Associate Faculty Director of Fox Leadership International, both 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.
Chao is actively involved in professional and community service activities. At Penn, he serves as Faculty Director of Penn Restorative Entrepreneurship Program (PREP), an innovative program geared towards helping formerly incarcerated individuals become entrepreneurs, participate in civic engagement, and advocate for social justice. He is Editor-in-Chief of Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, the premier journal in the field. He is also a co-editor of the Brill Nonprofit Sector Research Series and serves on the editorial boards of many other journals. He has served on the boards of directors of the Association of Research on Nonprofit Organizations & Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) and the Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ), among others. Globally, he has helped ARNOVA create a regional conference series in Asia (ARNOVA-Asia), co-chairing its initial three conferences in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei/Taichung, respectively (2017-2019). He has also served as founding co-director of the Institute for Philanthropy & Social Innovation at Renmin University of China.
In 2015, Guo accepted an invitation to become a Penn Fellow. In 2018, he received the Education Leadership Award from Rescue Mission of Trenton, an over-100-year-old nonprofit organization that acts as a field partner of PREP. In 2019, he was selected to receive the Distinguished Achievement and Service Award from ARNOVA.