Education

Duke University
Ph.D. Sociology

University of Chicago
A.M., Social Science

UC Berkeley
B.S., Industrial Engineering

Duke University
Ph.D. Sociology

University of Chicago
A.M., Social Science

UC Berkeley
B.S., Industrial Engineering

UC Berkeley
B.S., Industrial Engineering

University of Chicago
M.A., Social Science

Duke University
Ph.D., Sociology
Courses
- Nonprofit Management and Leadership
- Capstone in Public Affairs
- Statistics for the Social Sciences
- Introduction to Quantitative Analysis
- Research Methods
- Diversity and Inequality
Biography
Brad R. 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 Social Sector Initiative 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 is also the co-director of 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 $5.5 million in external funding.
Among Fulton’s publications are the award-winning book A Shared Future (University of Chicago Press), a chapter in Woody Powell’s 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 his Ph.D. in sociology from Duke University. He also holds a master’s in social science from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s in industrial engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Fulton joined O’Neill as an assistant professor in 2015, and he is an editorial board member for the American Journal of Sociology, Social Service Review, and Sociology of Religion, a faculty affiliate of IU’s Network Science Institute, and a fellow with the Aspen Institute.
Highlights
2023 Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award
2023 Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching | Innovate Award Finalist
2022 AmeriCorps | Research Grant $305,786
2022 Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly | Outstanding Article Award
2022 Alteryx Excellence Award | Best Example of Using Data for Good
2022 Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement | Research Grant $50,000
2021 American Sociological Association | Section Article Award
2021 Nonprofit Management & Leadership | Editors’ Prize for Best Article
2020 Aspen Institute | Inclusive America Project Fellow
2019 AmeriCorps | Research Grant $436,439
2018 Charity Navigator | Dugan Research Award on Philanthropic Impact
2018 Lilly Endowment Inc. | Research Grant $2,996,185
2017 ARNOVA | Felice Davidson Perlmutter Best Paper Award
2017 Lilly Endowment Inc. | Research Grant $1,670,000
2016 American Sociological Association | Section Article Award
2016 ARNOVA | Outstanding Book Award in Nonprofit Research
2015 American Political Science Association | Section Dissertation Award
2015 National Communication Association | Dennis Gouran Award
2014 Academy of Management | Research Methods – Best Paper Proceedings
2013 ARNOVA | President’s Award for Nonprofit Research
In the News
- “When is it Ethical to Steal?” – USA Today, Feb. 13, 2023
- “Race and Drug Arrests” – USA Today, Jan. 30, 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
- “Pence’s Impact on the 2020 Race” – S.F. Chronicle, Nov. 3, 2019
- “Questions about Bezos’ $2 Billion Fund” – CNBC Tech, Sept. 16, 2018
- “Trump’s Church Politics Idea Has Wide Reach” – NY Times, Feb. 7, 2017
Selected Publications
- “Engaging Differences: How Socially Diverse Organizations Can Mobilize Their Resources More Effectively” Social Forces (2021)
- “Bridging and Bonding: Disentangling Two Mechanisms Underlying the Diversity-Performance Relationship” Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly (2021)
- “Organizing Together: Identifying Benefits and Drawbacks of Community-Labor Coalitions for Community Organizing Efforts” Social Service Review (2020)
- “Representative Group Styles: How Ally Immigrant Rights Organizations Promote Immigrant Involvement” Social Problems (2020)
- “Critical Standpoint: Leaders of Color Advancing Racial Equality in Predominantly White Organizations” 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 (2017)
- “Trends in Addressing Social Needs: A Longitudinal Study of Congregation-Based Service Provision and Political Participation” Religions (2016)
- A Shared Future: Faith-Based Organizing for Racial Equity and Ethical Democracy University of Chicago Press (2015)
- “The Role of Bridging Cultural Practices in Racially and Socioeconomically Diverse Civic Organizations” American Sociological Review (2014)