Research & Publications

Three books, eighteen peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and over $2.8M in funded research. Fulbright Scholar. Work published in the Washington Post, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and The Conversation alongside leading academic journals.

One question, two literatures

My research began with racialized and stigmatized communities — Muslim-led nonprofits, their donors, and their relationship to the institutions meant to serve them. The recurring finding was that measurement itself was the problem: giving went uncounted because the instruments were built around a different donor, and organizations were read as suspicious rather than ordinary because the categories available made them so.

That is an equity failure produced by data and classification, and it long predates AI. My current work follows the same failure into automated systems, where it operates faster and with less visibility. The two streams below are one argument: the organizational pressures are constant, and only the technology is new.

Books

How Mission-Driven Organizations Work with AI: A Cointelligence Framework
With Abhishek Bhati · Edward Elgar Publishing · Under contract
A structured approach for organizations working out where AI can genuinely help, where it introduces risk, and how to build governance that accounts for both.
Nonprofit Collaborations in Diverse Communities: Challenges and Opportunities in Muslim-led Organizations
Siddiqui, S., Samad, A., & Wasif, R. · Edward Elgar Publishing · 2024
What it actually takes to build and sustain cross-sector partnerships in diverse communities — the trust work, the power dynamics, and the conditions under which coalitions hold.
Understanding Muslim Philanthropy
Siddiqui, S., Wasif, R., & Hughes, M. · Edward Elgar Publishing · 2024
Original data on how Muslim Americans give, and why existing frameworks consistently undercount a significant dimension of American civic life.

AI governance & public value

How mission-driven organizations adopt AI in ways that serve their mission, and what governance keeps automated systems accountable to the people they affect.

  • Sandberg, B., Wasif, R., & Hand, L. (2025). Addressing the promise and peril of AI for nonprofit management through a data feminist pedagogy. Journal of Public Affairs Education, 31(2), 192–212.
  • Ebrahim, T. Y., & Wasif, R. (2024). Innovation originators. Michigan Technology Law Review, 31(1), 1–64.
  • Hand, L., Wasif, R., & Sandberg, B. Reconsidering public value creation of artificial intelligence in the public sector: A data feminist approach. Revise & resubmit, Public Administration.
  • Bhati, A., & Wasif, R. Who's using AI? Exploring determinants of AI usage among nonprofit organizations in the United States. Revise & resubmit, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

Civil society, trust & institutional legitimacy

How organizations sustain public trust under political suspicion, how stigmatized communities maintain civic capacity, and what happens to institutional legitimacy during crisis. The organizational pressures are the same as those AI now reshapes; only the technology is new.

  • Siddiqui, S., Wasif, R., & Paarlberg, A. (2026). Broadening the definition of philanthropy: Understanding US citizens' embrace of Muslim philanthropic traditions. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 55(3), 602–622.
  • Siddiqui, S., Samad, A., & Wasif, R. (2025). Collaboration through trust building: Building trust among racialized and stigmatized nonprofits. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 36(1), 139–146.
  • Wasif, R., Paarlberg, A., Siddiqui, S., & King, D. (2025). Religious identity, linked fate, and political ideology: Explaining civil rights philanthropy among Muslim and Jewish Americans. Nonprofit Policy Forum.
  • Noor, Z., Wasif, R., & Siddiqui, S. (2025). Volunteering in the middle of crisis and politicization. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 54(3), 614–635.
  • Umarji, O., Wasif, R., Siddiqui, S., & Noor, Z. (2024). Philanthropy under uncertainty: Muslim religious giving during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs, 10(3), 322–341.
  • Wasif, R., Siddiqui, S., & Noor, Z. (2024). Navigating identity through social media: Twitter use of Muslim-American nonprofits. Voluntary Sector Review, 15(2), 188–209.
  • Siddiqui, S., Samad, A., & Wasif, R. (2024). Building partnerships through third-party facilitation. Voluntary Sector Review, 15(2), 343–352.
  • Wasif, R. (2023). Did 9/11 affect donations to Islamic charities in the United States? Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 52(5), 1475–1495.
  • Siddiqui, S., Wasif, R., & Noor, Z. (2023). Muslim philanthropy in the United States. In S. Siddiqui & D. Campbell (Eds.), Philanthropy in the Muslim World (pp. 364–383). Edward Elgar.
  • Siddiqui, S., Wasif, R., & Samad, A. (2023). Building collaboration using the community collaboration initiative model. Journal of Public Affairs Education, 29(3), 372–381.
  • Siddiqui, S., Wasif, R., & Samad, A. (2023). A year of learning: Educating the philanthropic community about racialized and stigmatized nonprofits. The Foundation Review, 15(4).
  • Noor, Z., Wasif, R., Siddiqui, S., & Khan, S. (2022). Racialized minorities, trust, and crisis. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 32(3), 341–364.
  • Wasif, R. (2021). Terrorists or persecuted? The portrayal of Islamic nonprofits in US newspapers post 9/11. VOLUNTAS, 32(5), 1139–1153.
  • Wasif, R. (2020). Does the media's anti-Western bias affect its portrayal of NGOs in the Muslim world? VOLUNTAS, 31(6), 1343–1358.
  • Wasif, R., & Prakash, A. (2017). Do government and foreign funding influence individual donations to religious nonprofits? Nonprofit Policy Forum, 8(3), 237–273.

Public writing

Research that stays in journals doesn't reach the people making decisions.

  • Wasif, R., & Prakash, A. (2022). Pakistan is seeking flood assistance — but not from foreign NGOs. Washington Post.
  • Hughes, M. A., Wasif, R., & Siddiqui, S. (2022). How Muslim Americans meet their charitable obligations: 3 findings from new research. The Conversation & The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
  • Wasif, R., & Siddiqui, S. (2021). U.S. Muslims gave more to charity than other Americans in 2020. The Conversation.

Honors & fellowships

  • Fellow, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indiana University (2026) — studying the use of AI in philanthropic advising.
  • CUPA Craig Wollner Award for Junior Faculty, Portland State University (2026).
  • ARNOVA Emerging Scholar (2024).
  • ARNOVA Doctoral Fellow (2019).
  • Taraknath Das Prize for Best Graduate Paper in Comparative and International Politics (2019).
  • Fulbright Fellow (2012).

Selected talks on AI

  • Generative AI basics, AI strategy, and AI governance in public organizations. Workshop series, 33rd Annual Northwest Public Employees Diversity Conference, Portland, OR (2026).
  • AI adoption in local governments. Invited presentation, City of Portland AI Steering Committee (2026).
  • AI's role in mission-driven education. Fundraising.AI podcast, Episode 86 (2026).
  • Digital transformation and artificial intelligence in the third sector. Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar (2025).
  • AI and government. Fudan Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences, Shanghai (2025).
  • How to govern AI for governments and nonprofits. College of Urban & Public Affairs, Portland State University (2025).
  • Artificial intelligence, digital rights and philanthropy. RGK Center Tech and Society Symposium, Austin, TX (2023).
  • Use of artificial intelligence in local government. League of Oregon Cities Conference, Eugene, OR (2023).