People often ask me during informational interviews how to get a job at a foundation or directing philanthropy at a family office. Please comment with your thoughts, but the short answer is, it’s very hard to break in without direct connections. Foundations tend to hire people who used to work at foundations. So to break in, networking is critical.
A lot of roles at family offices and also smaller family foundations are shared by word-of-mouth, so you’d only hear about them if you were part of that network. For a family office, if if there’s only one philanthropy role, they will generally expect that this person either has extensive philanthropy experience and/or deep subject matter expertise (or ideally both) in the donor’s areas of interest.
It’s typically easier to shift into a larger foundation than find a role at a family office or a small family foundation. There are usually two kinds of roles at foundations: programmatic and administrative. For programmatic roles such as program officer, you need fairly deep subject matter expertise in the issue area that the role oversees. While you may not need formal grantmaking experience to succeed, the recruitment process is often so competitive that the top candidates have both subject matter expertise and grantmaking experience. For other types of roles, most of which are administrative, apart from grants administration, you don’t necessarily need philanthropy experience, but instead functional experience. This includes finance, human resources, etc. Monitoring and evaluation is also a great role to pivot into in philanthropy.
So, assuming you either have deep subject matter expertise and/or functional expertise, here are a few strategies to pivot into philanthropy:
Learn how to make grants: Volunteer on a grantmaking advisory council at a community foundation, or run a giving circle of your own
If you don’t have prior direct philanthropy experience, learn how to give away money in a volunteer capacity. Some foundations, e.g., Washington Area Women’s Foundation or New York Women’s Foundation, have volunteer positions where you can serve on an advisory committee to help select grant recipients. Also, sometimes local public agencies will open up grantmaking opportunities to the public to participate in.
Alternatively, you could round up a group of friends and pool your money together to start a ‘giving circle‘, where you as a group decide where to collectively give away your money. A giving circle can be very informal (i.e., no formal financial structure, but your friends collectively agree to make joint decisions on how to give away your money). Alternatively, there are organizations that formally host giving circle structures, such as Full Circle Fund as well as community foundations.
If you work at a nonprofit, network with your funders
It’s not uncommon for people who work at nonprofits to eventually migrate into program officer positions at the foundations who fund their nonprofits. So it’s important to build relationships with your funders. Perhaps even ask them for an informational interview to find out what it’s like to work at a foundation.
One funder told me that they only hire people who were previously grantseekers so that they understand what it’s like to apply for grants, so prior nonprofit experience can be very important.
Work at a philanthropy ‘intermediary’ organization (e.g., consulting firm)
If you have strong strategy/research skills, you might consider working at a firm that provides consulting services to funders, and then pivoting from there into a foundation. This would include Arabella Advisors, FSG, Tides Foundation, Bridgespan, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Community foundations might also provide a way to pivot into the philanthropic sector, since they are also client serving.
While this is a decent stepping stone into working directly in philanthropy, it is possible to get pigeonholed in working for an intermediary and not be able to make the transition.
Identify the main philanthropy search firms in your region and get on their radar
Typically there’s a handful of search firms that focus on recruitment for philanthropic roles in each region. You can usually figure out who those are by looking at philanthropy job postings and seeing which firms pop up the most often. I’d suggest building a relationship with the recruiters at those firms. At the national level, firms like Koya Partners will often conduct searches for philanthropy roles.
Read up on philanthropy
Read the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Inside Philanthropy, Stanford Social Innovation Review, etc., to learn the latest trends on philanthropy and social impact. Check out websites such as Council on Foundations and National Center for Family Philanthropy.
Join a philanthropy ‘affinity’ group / association if they allow members who aren’t formally working in philanthropy
There are philanthropy associations, networking events and conferences, by region, by ‘affinity group’, and by topic area. For example, in the SF Bay Area, the regional association is Northern California Grantmakers. For AAPIs in philanthropy, there is AAPIP (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy). For health-related funders, there’s Grantmakers in Health. Some of these associations do allow people who aren’t funders to participate in some of their events and get on their email lists. Just note that events have a ‘nonsolicitation’ policy — i.e., do not make any direct requests for funders for grants, and I’d also say be careful about making direct requests for jobs!
As someone contemplating entering the philanthropy space, this overview was so incredibly helpful! Thank you for so clearly identifying these potential barriers and providing some concrete and actionable strategies for approaching/navigating them!