Non-Profit Administration Scholar Joins Our Faculty

Dean Mike Duffy has announced an exciting new faculty member to join us in August, 2011

Colleagues:
 
The already abundant good news about hiring faculty for the future grows again with Richard D. Waters' acceptance of our offer to join the faculty as an outstanding teacher and researcher in non-profit administration.  Richard's work seems easy to explain --  he examines fundraising processes, donor relations, as well as marketing and public relations by non-profits. Yet, there are two aspects of his work which move him beyond many others in the field and which will add significantly to the world of research and to our students' learning.  First, he pushes very hard to add a theoretical dimension to our understanding of fundraising, helping to move the field far beyond a collection of techniques to probing why certain methods are successful.  Second, Richard is tackling the most current means of communication -- Internet, social media, blogs -- to delve into the burgeoning world of e-Philanthropy.  His rich, contemporary insights will bring into our classrooms exciting developments which combine new Bay Area technologies with long-standing San Francisco and USF values.
 
His varied scholarship is first visible as unbelievably successful.  He has published 32 refereed journal articles, 10 of which are single authored.  He has co-authored three books and authored or co-authored six book chapters.  In addition he has presented at 36 conferences and written three encyclopedia  entries. He has won numerous "best paper" awards and much recognition for his work.  To cite a few of his works gives a sense of the range of his interests: a book to be published this year-- Hutchins, A. and Waters, R.D., Social Media and Public Relations: Bringing Theory and Practice Together; an article to be published this year in the Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Increasing fundraising efficiency through evaluation:  Applying communication theory to the nonprofit organization-donor relationship; a co-authored article last year -- Marketing Religious Organizations on the Internet: An Analysis of the Dialogic Potential of Religious Websites.
 
Richard is an assistant professor of public relations in the Department of Communication at North Carolina State University.  During his time there, he has taught courses in communication techniques and public relations. In addition, he developed courses in social media and public relations, non-profit marketing and E-Philanthropy techniques.  He joined NC State after completing his doctorate in mass communication at the University of Florida (dissertation: Advancing Relationship Management Theory: Coorientation and the Nonprofit - Donor Relationship).  Previously he had been awarded an MS in Public Relations at Syracuse University and an ABJ in Public Relations by University of Georgia.  All three of his degrees involved extensive work on fundraising, including an undergraduate thesis on ethics and fundraising.
 
Richard has also had success in the private sector and in non-profit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Florida.  He has served in public affairs, public relations and development roles as an employee and consultant. 

Thanks to the recruiting committee (Michael O'Neill, Leslie Goldgehn and Kathleen Fletcher) for their extensive review of candidates files, telephone and in-person interviews, and shepherding a number of candidates onto campus for all of us to meet. 
 
Please join me in welcoming Richard to our faculty. He can be reached at rdwaters@ncsu.edu.
 
Mike