Our guest Yoda today is Hilary McConnaughey, who has spent nearly a decade of her career in philanthropy, advising foundations, corporations, and high net-worth individuals on their charitable endeavors. At the Milken Institute Center for Strategic Philanthropy, she consults with high-capacity philanthropists, conducts research, and develops resources to advance the sector and individual giving. Previously, she worked at a biotech startup in San Francisco where she led community partnerships and its corporate social responsibility efforts. At Arabella Advisors, a philanthropic consulting firm, she managed charitable and social welfare projects on behalf of her clients. She also worked at the grant-making nonprofit Tipping Point Community, where she engaged in human-centered design to pilot social service programs impacting people in poverty and determine whether these concepts can be scaled. McConnaughey received her Master of Public Policy from Brown University and BA with honors from Colgate University.
Hilary also recently co-authored a report through the Milken Institute, “Stepping off the Sidelines: The Unrealized Potential of Strategic Ultra-High-Net-Worth Philanthropy.”
Choosing a career is never easy, especially if you are moved to make a difference in countless distinct ways. During grade school and my undergrad years, nearly every news story would compel me to dedicate my life to a new cause; one day it would be prison reform, another would be campaign finance, another, income inequality. I never doubted that I would end up in the nonprofit sector, but the career paths – and issue areas – seemed limitless.
Torn between pursuing a masters in criminal justice or public policy, I chose the latter, reasoning it would provide more professional versatility. With a stroke of luck, I wound up in a class about philanthropy during my first semester of grad school, and suddenly – serendipitously – my trajectory became clear.
At its best, philanthropy promotes social change at the macro level and can go beyond the support of direct services within a single nonprofit. Institutional funders and even astute individuals can harness their assets to address complex problems, taking a comprehensive long view to tackle root causes. Philanthropists have more than financial resources to contribute; they can also play a crucial role in convening stakeholders and facilitating collaborations and other connections. The strategic deployment of philanthropic assets has the potential to disrupt current systems and generate meaningful progress.
For nearly ten years, I have spent my career in the philanthropic sector, largely advising foundations and individuals on their charitable giving, and also building out corporate social responsibility initiatives. As a generalist, I support philanthropists and their varied causes of interest, which takes the form of developing strategic plans, social impact programs, funder collaboratives, impact frameworks, legacy plans, and more. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have landed in a profession where I can think about the big picture and help shape and advance social change as effectively as possible.
Of course, the very concept of philanthropy highlights the distinction between the fortunate and those who are less so. There is no denying the power imbalance that ensues when one segment of society elects to donate resources to another. Part of my job is to acknowledge and help minimize the one-way transactionality that philanthropy is historically known for. Philanthropists tend to be one step (if not more) removed from executing social change work, so they have much to learn from nonprofit staff and those with lived experience of the issue at hand. After all, those closest to the problem are those closest to its solution, and so both donor and recipient have important roles to play in this dynamic. Thus, the most productive philanthropists foster transparent relationships and continually seek feedback from – and even collaborate with – the community. Facilitating this engagement is the most rewarding work of all.
Ultimately, my career path can be distilled into one very simple lesson: if you don’t know where to start, start at the beginning. In pursuit of an impactful, issue-agnostic vocation, I discovered philanthropy as the beginning of the social impact supply chain in that the distribution of philanthropic resources serves as the lifeblood of the nonprofit sector, sustaining the programming and critical operating support that ultimately engenders transformative progress. I opted to direct my energy upstream, enabling philanthropy to be more strategic, effective, and inclusive. I have no regrets.