Informed Fundraising: Using Data and AFP Tools to Enhance your Fundraising Effectiveness

Angela Seaworth

Lecturer, Director of Philanthropic Initiatives and Capacity Building, Center for Nonprofits & Philanthropy, Texas A&M

Angela D. Seaworth holds a PhD in philanthropic studies from Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, where she researched nonprofit governance and leadership and was a Graduate Fellow at the Tobias Center for Leadership Excellence, a Doctoral Intern at the Lumina Foundation, and a Doctoral Assistant at the Fund Raising School. She earned her MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, a graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Indiana University’s O’Neil School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA), and a BA from Denison University.

Dr. Seaworth is passionate about nonprofit and philanthropy education. She was the founding Director of the Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at Rice University, where she designed curriculum and managed educational programming for nonprofit executives and board members, eventually growing the program to more than 800 enrollments annually. As a Lecturer for the Texas A&M Bush School of Government and Public Service, she teaches Management and Leadership of Nonprofit Organizations, Foundations of the Nonprofit Sector, Fundraising in Nonprofit Organizations, and Grant and Project Management for the Public and Nonprofit Sectors. Additionally, she has taught a graduate-level fund development course at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business and a nonprofit strategy course for the University of California, Irvine. She has taught an undergraduate capstone course in management, leadership, and policy as an adjunct professor at Indiana University’s SPEA. Dr. Seaworth champions youth philanthropy education and designed a week-long camp philanthropy curriculum for ages 9-14. In 2015, the Council of Michigan Foundations appointed her to the board of Learning to Give, a K-12 philanthropy education curriculum.

As a practitioner, she has more than twenty years of multifaceted experience in the nonprofit sector as a professional fundraiser and consultant. She has worked as a fundraiser at the University of Chicago and the University of Houston and as the Chief Development Officer at two independent high schools. She also worked in the Analytical Solutions practice for Marts & Lundy, Inc., where she was responsible for capacity analyses, benchmarking studies, and feasibility study design. In her consulting capacity, she has worked with a variety of organizations, including foundations, Catholic and Independent schools, public school foundations, Chambers of Commerce, ministries, and arts and cultural institutions on nonprofit governance, strategic planning, capacity building, and organizational assessments.

Dr. Seaworth is an Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive (ACFRE) and held the Certified Fund Raising Designation from 2002 to 2011. To promote the fundraising profession, she served on the ACFRE Credentialing Board for the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) International and as a Subject Matter Expert for CFRE International, preparing questions for its fundraising certification exam. Locally, she served on the Greater Houston AFP Chapter Board as the Vice President of Professional Advancement and was awarded the M. Anne Murphy Award for Professional Advancement.

She has served on various nonprofit boards for twenty-five years. In addition to her personal community service, she is involved in the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) and AFP. Dr. Seaworth’s work has been published in Giving USA, the NonProfit Times, Advancing Philanthropy, and the Continuing Higher Education Review, with media appearances in the Houston Chronicle, Houston Public Media KUHF, Houston PBS, Fox 26 News Houston, Chinese Xinhua News Agency Houston Bureau, and the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund.

Dr. Seaworth enjoys promoting the nonprofit profession and preparing the next generation of nonprofit leaders, so she is delighted to be a part of the Center for Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Bush School.