KENN ALLEN, Ed.D
Founder and President

Dr. Kenn Allen is known throughout the world for his leadership in promoting and supporting volunteering as the fundamental building block of civil society. He has helped to build strong organizations at the local, national and international levels and has made a major contribution to developing the conceptual framework that defines today’s global volunteer community. Now, he has established The Civil Society Consulting Group LLC “to help businesses, governments and NGOs unleash the power of people to change the world.” CSCG provides a broad range of strategic planning, consulting, and training services on all aspects of civil society development.

As a volunteer, Dr. Allen served as the elected volunteer World President of IAVE – The International Association for Volunteer Effort from 1996 through the International Year of Volunteers in 2001. IAVE is the worldwide network of individuals and organizations, with members in over 100 countries, that exists to promote, support and celebrate volunteering throughout the world. Its biennial World Volunteer Conference and its biennial regional conferences are the primary convening opportunities for volunteer leaders worldwide. In his role as World President, Dr. Allen served as the “chief executive” of IAVE and represented it publicly throughout the world.

Dr. Allen served for eleven years as a senior executive with the Points of Light Foundation, the “national volunteer center” in the United States. He joined the Foundation at the time of its creation in April 1990 to help develop the initial strategic plan guiding the Foundation's work and later had responsibility, as Senior Vice President, for the development and management of all programs of the Foundation. Immediately prior to leaving the Foundation in April 2001, Dr. Allen was Senior Vice President of the Points of Light Institute that includes the Foundation’s work with business, its annual National Community Service Conference, and its revenue generating training, consulting, and capacity-building products and services.

He was on loan to the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future from November 1996 through April 1997, with responsibility for developing and managing the content and process of the Summit program, including the involvement of 195 community, state and territorial delegations and over 1,500 national invitees. The Summit is widely recognized for establishing a new level of awareness of the importance of volunteering among leaders in government, business and the media. One result of the Summit was the creation of America’s Promise, the national movement serving young people.

From 1982-1988, he served as president of VOLUNTEER, the national leadership and resource organization for volunteering in the United States. From 1976-1981, he served as executive director of the National Center for Voluntary Action. In 1982, he served, on loan, as deputy director of the President Reagan’s Task Force on Private Sector Initiatives.

Over the past 25 years, he has worked with businesses, governments and NGOs throughout the United States and around the world. He has worked in countries as diverse as Russia, South Africa, Japan, Korea, England, India, Brazil, Taiwan, Australia, and Venezuela. He is the co-author of two books on the nature and scope of corporate involvement in community service activities and of numerous papers, articles, and monographs. He co-authored a book on volunteering in the United States for publication in Japan in Japanese.

A native of Illinois, he received his B.A from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a co-founder of what is now a premier college volunteer program, Volunteer Illini Projects. He served as assistant dean in the Dean of Students Office at the University of Illinois, completing graduate work there in the Administration of Higher Education. He received his M.A in Human Resource Development from George Washington University in 1990.

He was a fellow in the Executive Doctorate in Human Resource Development Program at George Washington University, receiving his Ed.D in May, 1996. His dissertation was on the role of community service in the lives of CEOs of major corporations and included interviews with eight current and former CEOs in the United States and England.

Dr. Allen is married to Maureen Shea who served on President Clinton’s White House staff and is now Director of Government Relations for the Episcopal Church U.S.A. They live in Washington, D.C. Their son, Christopher, attends Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.