M. Angel Flores
Angel has nearly two decades of experience working with and within organizations in the health, education, cultural, and human services sectors. As a Corporate Vice President, Angel is a highly motivated, results-oriented, and compassionate executive. She has advised organizations and planned and managed campaigns ranging from $20 million to $2.8 billion. She has extensive expertise and experience managing strategic operations, planning and directing large-scale capital and comprehensive campaigns, incorporating gift planning strategies, refining major gift programs, and building and fostering positive cultures of philanthropy.
Within CCS, Angel has held a number of leadership positions. She led her NY-based team’s mentorship program for five years and served as one of a cohort of mentors for 35+ colleagues. She founded and led the Working Parents community for two years, which engaged over 100 colleagues through bi-monthly webinars featuring internal and external guests and panelists. More recently she was chosen for CCS’s DEI Working Group, which is tasked with creating substantive policies and initiatives and to contribute positively to the national discourse on DEI and anti-racism and the intersection with philanthropy. As of October 2020, Angel was elevated to lead the Gift Planning Team and is responsible for managing a cross-firm team to create a new project concept with the potential to diversify and increase revenue for CCS’s nonprofit partners.
Prior to joining CCS, Angel worked for the Alvin Ailey organization, first with The Ailey School coordinating the Ailey/Fordham BFA program, and later with Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation developing and managing the marketing plans and budgets for the School and the junior company, Ailey II.
Originally from West Texas, Angel studied English Literature and Dance at Washington University in St. Louis before moving to New York City. Angel currently resides in Westchester County, New York, with her family, and constantly draws on her dance, yoga, and Ayurvedic training to maintain her flexibility and strength in mind, body, and spirit.
In Her Own Words
What is your favorite quote?
Photo above: Judith Jamison | Courtesy of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
May we exist like a lotus,
At home in the muddy water.
Thus we bow to life as it is.
—Gautama Buddha
Who is your favorite woman fundraiser or philanthropist of color?
I have two! My mom, who committed to giving to her church and other community nonprofits with her time, talent, and treasure, giving as much or as little as she was able, and doing so joyfully, and Judith Jamison, the former Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
As a leader and fundraiser, Judith’s confidence in the organization’s mission of the importance of returning dance to the people and to righteously and unapologetically celebrating Black and Brown dancers was life changing for me. Both women are forces of nature and helped me see what it means to live your truth.
What inspired you to use your background in English Literature and dance to pursue a career in fundraising and philanthropy?
Honestly, I got lucky. I moved to New York with very little and a dream to dance. I was fortunate to attend The Ailey School and then work for the School and The Ailey Foundation. My love of literature translated to seeing the need for improving communications and documents in support of various internal and external functions of the School and Foundation, including to donors, which ultimately led me to fundraising.
Live your truth – as a human, as a woman, and as a fundraiser. There is no roadmap for how to be in fundraising as a woman of color.
Where do you want to be in 3 years?
I’m not sure where I want to be in three years. I do know I want to be living a life that continues to be aligned with my values, grounded in being the best future ancestor I can be. That includes how I show up in fundraising and philanthropy.
Do you have any advice for other women of color entrepreneurs in the realm of philanthropy and fundraising — whether they are in Canada, the United States, or the international WOC community at large?
Live your truth— as a human, as a woman, and as a fundraiser. There is no roadmap for how to be in fundraising as a woman of color. It’s a space that has been and is dominated by White men and women as both practitioners and donors. Their way cannot be my way, or your way, and that realization can be terrifying and liberating.
When we remember that true philanthropy is an Indigenous concept— loving all people by recognizing and honoring their inherent worth, separate from their work or wealth— we also remember that women of color have a perspective and life experience that includes this Indigenous history and legacy. Our experiences are complex and intersectional. We can use those experiences to our advantage, building coalitions, like WOC, to tackle the big, messy problems in fundraising and in so many other areas of our society.
As we say in my family when it’s time to get going: ¡andale!
