Dr Isabel de Bruin Cardoso

Dr Isabel de Bruin Cardoso is an Affiliate of the Global Philanthropy Initiative at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford.

Isabel is the founder of the Nonprofit Ethics Lab, which examines the ethical opportunities and risks associated with nonprofit organisations, and seeks to establish nonprofit ethics as a distinct field of study and practice. Central to her work is the question of what a nonprofit’s mission means for ethics, and what ethics means for mission. She also studies other types of mission-driven organisations, such as philanthropies, social enterprises, and international organisations, examining how a focus on mission shapes their moral positioning, conduct, and management.

Isabel’s work straddles academia and practice. She has worked with and advised international NGOs, philanthropic organisations, religious congregations, and international organisations such as the UN and the World Bank in 22 countries. Nearly 20 years of experience in ethics, integrity, and safeguarding shapes the questions she researches, and the training and tools she develops for practitioners.

Isabel holds a PhD from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. She is also an adjunct professor at the Erasmus School of Economics and a visiting lecturer at Radboud University and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.