Institutional Membership

See below or click here to download a PDF.               

PPN Institutional Membership Policy

The Public Philosophy Network (PPN) creates virtual spaces and in-person events where philosophers engaged in public work can collaborate with one another and with practitioners.  We provide networking opportunities to help members find others with similar interests so that they might develop and strengthen projects.  We also provide forums and workshops in which philosophers can strengthen skills needed to “go public” and/or engage in discussion and reflection on the challenges and rewards of doing publicly engaged work. 

The Public Philosophy Network is financed with contributions from institutional members, individual donations, and grants.  We are particularly dependent on the support of our institutional members so that we can provide free web-based resources and networking opportunities to our many individual members who are graduate students, independent scholars, nonprofit practitioners and junior faculty members. 

Who can be institutional members? We welcome all organizations that support our mission.  Eligible members include:  Institutions of higher education or affiliated departments/programs/institutes; non-profit or non-governmental organizations; public policy institutes; and journals or presses.

Institutional Member Benefits: 

• Recognition:  Institutional members will be featured prominently on the home page of the PPN website with links back to their own program or organizational website and the opportunity to post the PPN logo on their own site.  Institutional members demonstrate to others that they are invested in a commitment to publicly engaged philosophy, which might be useful in student and faculty recruitment as well as grant writing.
• Representation:  Each institutional member chooses a representative to serve on the Public Philosophy Network’s Advisory Board.
• Project support:  Institutional members will receive priority attention for projects that could benefit from PPN social networking resources.  In addition, the financing of the PPN puts resources and networking opportunities into the hands of your faculty, staff, and students.
• Discounts:  Employees or students affiliated with institutional members may be eligible for reduced conference and event fees.  The exact discount will depend on the event and how the institutional membership fee payment is structured (see below).   

Institutional Member annual fees are available on a sliding scale: 

• Journals, and nonprofit organizations with budgets less than $10,000 =  $500

• Nonprofit organizations and journals/presses with budgets greater  than $10,000 =  $750

• Departments, Centers, Programs, and Institutes at research universities: $3,000

• Departments, Centers, Programs, and Institutes at comprehensive universities and colleges:  $750

Alternatives to cash payments can be arranged by making a proposal to the Executive Committee.  We welcome proposals for in-kind goods or services (see, for example, our current web staffing needs that might be fulfilled by a faculty or staff member or student), hosting a workshop on your campus under the banner of the PPN, sponsoring a PPN conference or some aspect of it (e.g., a reception or a plenary session).  In the interest of equity among institutional members, we expect successful proposals will offer to provide some benefit that will exceed the cash equivalent of the annual dues set for your organization.

Institutional members who make generous contributions in a given year will be credited with multiple years of institutional membership equivalent to their contribution.

Interested?  Contact Sharon Meagher and Noëlle McAfee, co-Directors of the Public Philosophy Network at publicpn@gmail.com with the subject line Membership to discuss the possibilities if you need to negotiate in-kind services.  If you are ready to pay, please complete this form.

If you would like to make a donation as an individual, please go to:  http://publicphilosophynetwork.ning.com/page/donate

Note that the PPN does not yet have non-profit status, so your donation is not currently tax-deductible.