AFP Houston March 2025 Education Session

Friday, March 21, 2025
11:30 a.m. - Noon: Networking
Noon - 1:00 p.m.: Program

Location:
United Way of Greater Houston
50 Waugh Drive
Houston, TX 77007

Register Here 

Improving Fundraising Through Modern Board Capacity Building 
Speaker: Angela Seaworth, Ph.D., MBA, ACFRE

Session Description
A recent sample of nonprofit executives from Texas regions indicates fundraising was improved by intentionally strengthening other elements of nonprofit management, particularly those related to board governance. However, volunteer boards have been impacted by post-pandemic work dynamics, and organizations are facing more difficulty in recruiting, training, and even convening board for planning. During this session, participants will learn modern approaches to build capacity on their boards that will strengthen the organization’s foundation for fundraising. 

Learning Objectives:
After participating in this session, attendees should be able to: 

• Identify board functions that contribute to fundraising success
• Discuss how board functioning in these areas is critical to fundraising success with organization leadership
• Analyze an organization’s board to indicate opportunities for capacity building
• Formulate a list of action items that can be prioritized to build board capacity 
• Explain how the work of the board impacts fundraising at an organization

Speaker Bio

Angela Seaworth holds a Ph.D. in Philanthropic Studies from Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy where she researched nonprofit governance and leadership, was a Graduate Fellow at the Tobias Center for Leadership Excellence and a doctoral assistant at The Fund Raising School. She earned her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, with concentrations in strategy and marketing, a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Indiana University’s O’Neil School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA), and B.A. 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. She has served in advisory roles for the development of two other nonprofit centers and researches the sustainability of nonprofit centers. Currently, she focuses on finding solutions to capacity-building issues the nonprofit sector is facing, particularly in rural areas, and manages multiple capacity-building initiatives throughout Texas. She also supports the human capital pipeline by encouraging professionals to choose nonprofit careers.

As an Instructional Associate Professor for the Texas A&M Bush School of Government and Public Service, she draws on her 25+ years of practitioner and consulting experience while teaching Management and Leadership of Nonprofit Organizations, Foundations of the Nonprofit Sector, Volunteer and Human Resources Management in Nonprofit Organizations, Fundraising & Philanthropy, 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 Nonprofit Strategy for the University of California Irvine. Seaworth champions youth philanthropy education and designed a week-long camp philanthropy curriculum for ages 9-14, and the Council of Michigan Foundations appointed her to the board for Learning to Give, a K-12 philanthropy education curriculum.

Seaworth is an Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive (ACFRE) and held the Certified Fund Raising Designation from 2002-2011. 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 VP Professional Advancement and was awarded the M. Anne Murphy Award for Professional Advancement. Currently, Seaworth is member of AFP’s Research Council and serves on the Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP), Skystone Partners Prize for Research jury, and advises the Texas A&M Collegiate Chapter of AFP.

She has served on various nonprofit boards for 25 years. In addition to her personal community service, Angela is involved with the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) and the Nonprofit Academic Centers Counsel (NACC). Seaworth’s work has been published in Giving USA, Forbes, 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, KBTX News 3, Chinese Xinhua News Agency Houston Bureau, and the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund.