Poverty Alleviation through Transformative Relationships



For TCR 2019, we intend to continue work on poverty alleviation efforts from TCR 2017. For TCR 2017, two divergent data sets were collected: 10 case studies of non-profit organizations and a 5-day visit with an impoverished community in Nicaragua. Based on discussions with the community regarding ideal approaches for poverty interventions, a $2,000 grant was secured to fulfill the change most desired by the community: enhancements to the local school facility. The project will be implemented by a local nonprofit group, and the community is unaware that the money was secured by our team of researchers.

  1. We plan on returning to the same community visited in 2017 for a focused data gathering collect on the intervention process and associated outcomes. Our research questions for the current research will likely be: How did the community experience the NPO intervention?
  2. What type of relationship and level of engagement was experienced by the community and NPO?
  3.  What are the expectations and outcomes of this relationship?

Separately, we intend to investigate poverty alleviation efforts from the donor and participant stakeholder perspectives. Two research questions will be investigated: How do donors choose to invest in poverty alleviation charities? And how do participants in short-term poverty alleviation efforts view their experience? The stakeholder data collection, combined with the return visit to the same community and prior case study data, will provide a holistic overview of an alleviation effort from the perspective of each entity in the Transformative Charity Experience (TCE) triad model.


Track Leaders

Kristin A. Scott
Kristin A. Scott is an Associate Professor of Marketing and International Business at Minnesota State University, Mankato with a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University. She leads a study abroad course in Belize where students gain real-world learning experiences about fair trade and cultural competency in a developing country. Her most current research investigates how non-profit organizations can increase their impact in poverty alleviation efforts. Overall, she strives to engage in research that has a beneficial societal impact to improve well-being. Kristin is published in the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Research, and the Journal of Macromarketing.
Leslie E. Koppenhafer

Leslie E. Koppenhafer, is an Assistant Professor at Boise State University with a Ph.D. from University of Oregon. Her classroom style is influenced by her work experience and emphasizes the soft skills of leadership, communication and teamwork while blending the science and creativity of marketing. Leslie incorporates service learning in her courses because she finds students perform at a higher level when working on “real” problems and wants to encourage people early in their careers to give back to their communities. Leslie’s research interests are driven by a desire to be a positive contributor to society through transformative consumer research.

Track Participants

  • Todd Weaver, Point University
  • Mark R. Mulder, Pacific Lutheran University
  • Lindsay Kathryn Jewett, Best Buddies International