Marlou Ramaekers is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Philanthropic Studies at the department of Sociology at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam. She works as a researcher and data manager on the biennal Giving in the Netherlands study. In this position, she contributed to chapters of the 2024 study on household giving, foundations and volunteering. Furthermore, she manages the Giving in the Netherlands Panel Study (GINPS) and has coordinated efforts to make the dataset Corporate Giving in the Netherland publicly available.
In 2024, she received her PhD degree from Radboud University for her dissertation on the impact of the social environment (norms, networks, families) on informal helping (practical support that people provide to friends, family and neighbors). Her personal research line builds on insights from this dissertation, examining who provides informal help and informal care (mantelzorg) to nonfamily members (e.g., friends and neighbors).
