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Paul H. O’Neill
School of Public and Environmental Affairs

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  • Brad R. Fulton

Brad R. Fulton

Associate Professor

Headshot
Phone:
(812) 855-6948
Email:
fulton@iu.edu
Website:
https://bradrfulton.com/
  • Twitter
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Research areas:
Civil Society Civic Engagement and Volunteering
Methods Econometrics and Data Management
Nonprofit Management and Philanthropy
Social Policy and Health
Areas of Interest:
Organizations
Social Movements
Structural Inequality
Quantitative Methods
SPEA 419

Education

  • Ph.D., Duke University
  • A.M., University of Chicago
  • B.S., U.C., Berkeley

Courses

  • Diversity and Inequality (also on Apple Podcasts)
  • Nonprofit Management and Leadership (also on Apple Podcasts)
  • Capstone in Public Affairs
  • Statistics for the Social Sciences (also on Apple Podcasts)
  • Introduction to Quantitative Analysis
  • Research Methods

Biography

Print-quality Photo

Curriculum Vitae 

Brad Fulton is an expert on the social, political, and economic impact of community-based organizations. He directs the National Study of Community Organizing—a multi-level study that examines the causes and consequences of racial, socioeconomic, and religious diversity within grassroots advocacy organizations. Fulton leads the Project 990 which is analyzing data on over one million nonprofit organizations to construct a first-of-its-kind network dataset that links U.S. foundation and grantee data spanning the past 10 years.

Fulton co-leads the Observing Civic Engagement project—a field study that uses an innovative data collection technique, known as systematic social observation, to analyze the internal dynamics of organizations. He also co-directs the National Study of Congregations’ Economic Practices—a multimethod study that analyzes how religious congregations receive, manage, and spend their financial resources.

To fund his research projects, Fulton has obtained $5.8 million in external funding from funders, including the Lilly Endowment, Aspen Institute, AmeriCorps, Kellogg Foundation, Mott Foundation, Hearst Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, and Charity Navigator.

To advance these research projects, Fulton has built and developed multiple research teams totaling 112 research assistants (20 PhD students, 66 MA students, and 26 undergraduates), 58 of whom are women and 55 of whom are students of color.

Among Fulton’s publications are the award-winning book A Shared Future (UChicago Press), a chapter in the Nonprofit Sector Research Handbook, and articles published in journals including the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Problems, NVSQ, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, and Voluntas. Fulton’s research has received 18 national awards from academic associations spanning six disciplines and is regularly covered by media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Associated Press.

Fulton also developed, edited, and published three semester-long online courses: Diversity and Inequality, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, and Statistics for the Social Sciences. His lectures have been played over 100,000 times by people from 147 different countries. Relative to equivalent courses on Apple Podcasts, they are among the highest rated and most reviewed.

Fulton earned degrees from U.C. Berkeley, University of Chicago, and Duke University, and he joined O’Neill as an assistant professor in 2015. Fulton is an editorial board member for the American Journal of Sociology, Sociology of Religion, and Social Service Review, the director of the Faith & Prejudice Institute, and a fellow with the Aspen Institute.



Highlights

  • AmeriCorps | Research Grant $437,495 (Co-PI), 2023
  • Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award, 2023
  • Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly | Outstanding Article Award, 2022
  • Alteryx Excellence Award | Best Example of Using Data for Good, 2022
  • American Sociological Association | Section Article Award, 2021
  • Nonprofit Management and Leadership | Editors’ Prize for Best Article, 2021
  • Aspen Institute | Inclusive America Project Fellow, 2021-2023
  • ARNOVA | Dugan Research Award on Philanthropic Impact, 2018
  • Lilly Endowment Inc. | Research Grant $2,996,185 (Co-PI), 2018
  • ARNOVA | Outstanding Book Award in Nonprofit Research, 2016
  • ARNOVA | President’s Award for Nonprofit Research, 2013

In the News

  • “The Consequences of Hate” – USA Today, Aug. 22, 2023
  • “Indy Pride and Prejudice” – Indianapolis Monthly, Jun. 6, 2022
  • “Being Diverse is Not Enough” – Chronicle of Philanthropy, Dec. 17, 2021
  • “Churches Helping People Get Food” – Washington Post, Oct. 29, 2021
  • “Americans are in a Mental Health Crisis” – Salon, Oct. 7, 2021
  • “As Organized Religion Shrinks” – Washington Post, Oct. 23, 2020

Selected Works

  • “Activity and Identity: Uncovering Multiple Institutional Logics in the Nonprofit Sector,” (with R. Ressler and P. Paxton), Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (2023)
  • “Observing Civic Engagement: Using Systematic Social Observation to Study Civil Society Organization Convenings,” (with M. Baggetta), Voluntas (2022)
  • “Engaging Differences: How Socially Diverse Organizations Can Mobilize Their Resources More Effectively,”Social Forces (2021)
  • “Representative Group Styles: How Ally Immigrant Rights Organizations Promote Immigrant Involvement,” (with G. Yukich and R. L. Wood), Social Problems, (2020)
  • “Critical Standpoint: Leaders of Color Advancing Racial Equality in Predominantly White Organizations,” (with M. Oyakawa and R. L. Wood), Nonprofit Management & Leadership, (2019)
  • “Organizations and Survey Research: Implementing Response Enhancing Strategies and Conducting Nonresponse Analyses,” Sociological Methods & Research, (2018)
  • “Fostering Muslim Civic Engagement through Faith-Based Community Organizing,” Journal on Muslim Philanthropy and Civil Society, 1:43-73 (2017)
  • “Trends in Addressing Social Needs: A Longitudinal Study of Congregation-Based Service Provision and Political Participation,” Religions 7:51-67 (2016).
  • A Shared Future: Faith-Based Organizing for Racial Equity and Ethical Democracy, (with R.L. Wood), University of Chicago Press (2015)
  • “The Role of Bridging Cultural Practices in Racially and Socioeconomically Diverse Civic Organizations,” (with R. Braunstein and R.L. Wood), American Sociological Review 79:705-25 (2014)

View all publications

Related Links

  • National Study of Community Organizing
  • National Study of Congregations' Economic Practices
  • Observing Civic Engagement
  • Diversity and Inequality (on Apple Podcasts)
  • Nonprofit Management and Leadership (on Apple Podcasts)
  • Statistics for the Social Sciences (on Apple Podcasts)
  • Google Scholar

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