Elizabeth Schmidt

Elizabeth (Betsy) Schmidt is a senior research fellow in public policy, specializing in nonprofits, nonprofit law, social enterprises, and solutions-based policy analysis. She has taught two graduate courses, Nonprofit Law and Management and Social and Environmental Enterprises, and two undergraduate courses, Making a Difference: Policies and Strategies for Successful Social Change and Catalyzing Change: Creating and Operating a Nonprofit.

She is also President of Rules of the Road for Nonprofit Leaders, a firm that educates nonprofit leaders about the legal rules that govern their operations and, when understood correctly, can help them achieve their missions. 

Prior to UMass, she taught nonprofit and social enterprise courses, directed the Center for Social Entrepreneurship, and ran a master’s program in social entrepreneurship at George Mason University. She has also taught at Vermont Law, William and Mary Law, and Marlboro College’s MBA for Sustainability program. In addition to academic positions, Schmidt has practiced law, consulted with nonprofits, and worked directly for nonprofit organizations in legal and management capacities. Among her accomplishments were the creation and development of a data licensing program at GuideStar and a distance learning program at Colonial Williamsburg.

Schmidt writes in the areas of nonprofit governance, accountability, policies, and ethics. She also writes about the legal framework for social enterprises. In addition to several articles, she is the author of Rules of the Road for Nonprofit Leaders, Georgetown University Press, 2025, and  Nonprofit Law: The Life Cycle of a Charitable Organization, 4th ed. (Aspen Publishing 2025).

She has an undergraduate degree in history from Princeton and a law degree from Stanford University.