Meet-A-FLiP: Mysterious M

The author of one of my favorite philanthropy blogs, Mysterious M, devotes her blog to describing her life inside a major independent private foundation. For fundraisers, her blog is a rare opportunity to see how the other half lives. After you write that proposal, where does it go? Who's reading it, and what is there job like?  For the grantmakers, her blog gives you a chance to share some of your key experiences giving money away. M's mantra is, "giving away money ain't easy". You think it's easy? Here are some sample quotes from four different posts:

• Every Program Officer is haunted. By piles. Piles of their files. There are always more files assigned than there is time to read. Proposals, Letters of Intent, Compliance Reports, Final Reports, the works.
• Even though your proposal is 120 pages long, I still read it. The whole thing. Copying a paragraph from part of the proposal and then repeating it later on it not advisable.
• Is there a difference if the funder said "we found that your case for funding was not very strong" as opposed to "we found that your case for funding was weak?" How honest should funders be? What language should be used/avoided?
• Never ever insert clip art all throughout your proposal narrative. It is just annoying.

So, in what has become standard FLiP style, we made contact and begged her to submit to an interview. So, while attempting to avoid any conflicts with her secret identity, please enjoy our latest Meet-A-FLiP, and please check in often with Inside Foundations.

Future Leaders in Philanthropy: What kind of work do you do right now? Where in the country are you?

M: I am currently a Program Associate at a large independent private foundation.  My job tasks consist of all kinds of things, generally speaking I support our Program Teams and Program Officers.  I do get to have a small portfolio of a few grants each docket to make recommendations on, plus all the other PA functions.  “What I do” is very amorphous, basically based on what needs doing.

Geographically, I am not located on one of the coasts.

FLiP: Tell me as much about your background as you're willing to share. I'm especially curious about your education; what was your undergraduate major? Do you have a graduate degree?

M: I grew up in Indiana.   It was a fortunate place to be as it is increasingly becoming an area with a very strong nonprofit sector. I found the calling of philanthropy early in life.  I was lucky enough to be exposed to the inner workings of a development office at a young age.  When I was in grade school, my mother got a job as the Administrative Assistant for the Director of Development at a nonprofit.  It was a nonprofit that helped animals, and that excited me because at that young age I knew that I wanted to spend my life helping animals.  Maybe I would become a vet or a zookeeper.

One day I had the opportunity to interview one of the organization's administrators for my school newspaper.  I asked him how I could get a job like his.  One option he presented was to get a science degree, and another one in grad school, and to be prepared to work for low wages while you worked your way up the ladder.  The other option he presented was to come up through development.  He explained to me that the development folks were the ones who were able to persuade the public to give money to the organization because they liked their mission of helping animals.  Of course, at that young age, development didn't sound like the more exciting of the two options, so I decided to be a scientist.

Over the years, my mom stayed in development offices, moving from the animal nonprofit to Indiana University, and moving from Administrative Assistant to Office Manager.  So over the dinner table I heard a lot about fundraising and philanthropy.  I heard about the Center of Philanthropy that was blossoming there.  I guess I filed it away somewhere in the back of my brain.

In high school, as I struggled with physics and chemistry and excelled at speech, English and government, I began to rethink where my talents might be best used.  By the end of my freshman year of college I changed my major from zoology to Speech Communications.  I thought to myself, "If I become a zookeeper or a vet, I can only help one animal at a time.  If I become a fundraiser I can help many more animals."  This revelation applied to other things I loved as well, like film, dance and music.  Weighing the choice of helping one versus helping many seemed a simple enough choice.  I decided that my career would be one spent in the world of nonprofits. I ended up with a B.S. in Speech Communications with a minor in Biology.   My advisor told me it was a degree that had many applications, though I wasn't quite sure about that myself.  It turns out that he was right on the money.

I ended up going straight into grad school at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.  I received my M.A. in Philanthropic Studies.  The program there is amazing. The faculty were great.  These people are some of the leaders of the nonprofit sector.  Some have remained great mentors.  They are great contacts for networking and very helpful in job hunting.

The degree did help to prepare me for fundraising, in the sense that technically I learned about moves management, donor pyramids, etc.  Unfortunately most fundraising offices do not seem to value this kind of education very much.  There seemed to be a huge bias against me because of my age and my lack of "experience" as if my part-time work during grad school counted for nothing.  I think as more and more people my age come to the nonprofit sector with degrees like the M.A. in Philanthropic Studies, the more valued it will become.  The degree does really help now that I am with a foundation.  Knowing a little bit about a lot of stuff in the nonprofit sector helps me to put our grantmaking into context.  It helped me develop the analytical, writing and communications skills that I use.

FLiP: Why do you blog anonymously? What is the benefit?

M: I blog anonymously because I am unsure as to how my employers would feel about me blogging.  They are very conservative (not politically, but culturally) and not very high tech.  I don't want to make them unhappy.  I also don't want my journal content to be taken as an "official position" of my foundation - I want people to know these are my own words and opinions, not the foundations.  It is difficult for me actually; I would much rather not be anonymous.  But I need my job, and don't want to have any of my writing put them into any awkward positions.

FLiP: What is life like inside a foundation? Is giving money away the dream job it seems like?

M: Life inside a foundation is a unique experience.  I really think it varies based on the foundation you work for.  The ones I have visited are very different than my own.  My foundation has a fairly large endowment and a fairly small program staff, half of which, including the leadership, are fairly new, and the other half of which have been here forever. One of my fellow program staff members started here when I was in KINDERGARTEN!  In general, I love the people, but there are some really big power struggles and some even bigger egos.  Not all people who work at a foundation are there because they want to do good.  Some are there for the power trip.  It’s the minority.  It’s unfortunate.  But it is reality.  Most people are amazing though.  My fellow PA, M Squared, is the greatest co-worker I have ever had.  Sometimes I think she and I share a brain.

About “Dream Jobs.” - My first thought was that I don't believe in "dream jobs."  I thought the jobs I had working as a fundraiser for animal organizations were my "dream job."  I let myself get so hyped up for it.  I got very emotionally involved in it.  And I think that is good, you have to be emotionally involved with your job, both to be a good fundraiser and a good grantmaker - up to a certain point.  There is such a thing as being too emotionally involved.

In my job at the animal organization, I was too emotionally involved.  It was my first real full time job out of grad school.  I was very naive.  And I LOVED this organization.  I loved the mission.  I loved the care they gave the animals.  But the people and the administration, they were just too messed up to bear.  The Board of Trustees was controlling and they did not allow the development department to do its job.  And there were lots of other issues with administration.  This job just ate away at my soul.  After three years I had to leave to spare my mental health.  I could not stand to see this institution that I loved being destroyed by incompetent Trustees and executive administration.  It was heartbreaking and soulcrushing.

So the next fundraising job I took I really had no connection to - and I didn't like that very much.   It was a University that had a lot of bureaucracy (and I have worked in Higher Ed before so I know bureaucracy is par for the course, but this was an extraordinary, jaw-dropping amount of bureaucracy tinted with racial issues).  After two years I was burnt-out on fundraising so I decided to pursue grantmaking, it was something I had really wanted to do right out of grad school.

So I was lucky enough to get my job with my employer, and I have been hanging in there as I have been learning the ropes.  Now I don't know what the "official" job description for a Program Associate really is.  So if any of you out there in cyberspace have PA job description, I'd love to see them.  But I digress, myself and M Squared have been doing all kinds of work, everything from administrative tasks on up to carrying a load of applications and either recommending them for grants or declines to the trustees.  That is the exciting part, the "dream" part.

That's certainly not the majority of our work though.  This is an entry level position.  As in every entry level position, there is, and there is no delicate way to put this, "crap work."  It is the dirty work that needs to get done that nobody wants to do if they don't have to. Proofreading.  Data Entry.  Chasing down applicants to get follow-up information from them.  Or any part of a PO's job that they just don't feel like doing.

So lately I have been frustrated.  M Squared and I are stretched way too thin.  We simply just don't have enough time in the day to get all of the work done.  I've worked at least 10, sometimes up to 20 hours of un-paid, un-compensated overtime every week for the past three months.  So this is why I hesitate in calling this my "dream job."

I do, however, love my job.  Every grant cycle I have gotten to make some really cool grant recommendations, and some that I am not sure if they are cool, but who knows what they will lead to in the future.  Plus, we are kind of shifting around our funding priorities, so that is exciting as well that I have a hand in that.

It is hard work, but I am making the world a better place, so for me that is worth it.  I know the things that are frustrating me are not permanent, they are a temporary (well, a longer-term sort of temporary) situation.  So I am just trying to hang in there and look to the future.

So, is this my "Dream Job?"  Ask me again in a few years :)

FLiP: What would you tell a young person who is looking for a job at a foundation? What kinds of experience would be helpful?

M: It is hard to break into the foundation world; there just are not a lot of job openings.  My advice would be to:

• Get a grad degree in a field that you love and that has some way of being applicable to the nonprofit sector,
• Get as much experience working/volunteering at a NGO as early as you can, especially in management or programs,
• Network - who you know can be crucial.  Knowing the right person can at least get your foot in the door so you can show off what you know.  Join all the associations you can, keep in touch with friends from college and grad school, and
• Don't give up - I applied for a job at my current foundation three times over a six-year period before I finally got a position.  Just keep trying.

I think depending on what your passions are it will dictate how to get experience for a foundation job.  Many foundations are so specialized in certain sub-sectors of the nonprofit world.  For example, if your passion is health care, you could get a MPA in health care administration with a minor in something nonprofity like fundraising or philanthropic studies, do an internship in a hospital's fundraising office or some health nonprofit, and join groups like the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), your state's nonprofit association, the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, etc.

After graduation, if you can't get your foot in the door at a foundation, find the geographic area where you want to be a foundation worker, and get a job at a health care NGO.  Gather more work experience and make local funder contacts and bide your time until you see an open foundation position you want.  This would be a great background for something like the California Endowment or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  If you want to work for the Foundation for Deep Ecology, however, it might not be as helpful.

There are also options if you can't or don't want to focus on a specific sub-sector of the nonprofit world (like myself).  If you are lucky enough to live in an area with a large foundation community (New York City, Washington DC, etc.) then you might have the option of working for a large foundation that has multiple program areas (like the Ford Foundation who has broad funding areas like "Knowledge, Creativity, and Freedom" and "Peace and Social Justice").

If you are not that lucky, maybe you can find a foundation that does not fund particular nonprofit
sub-sectors (like the Kresge Foundation who funds multiple sectors but with a focus on building nonprofit capacity through challenge grants), a foundation that focuses on a geographic area (like the Lilly Endowment that focuses a lot of its giving on Indiana or the McKnight Foundation which focuses on Minnesota) or your local community foundation.

Comments

[another anonymous]

The philanthropic sector is unique in the sense that fundraising and grantmaking do require judgement that only comes from work experience. While unfortunate that you were not treated well, the fact is that you were inexperienced. Unlike some professions, you cannot simply read about a theory or formula and apply it. Frankly, with a MA with no real work experience, I would not have considered hiring you. (And, I am an alum of the Center on Philanthropy too -- so do not take this as a personal attack, but objective insight from a nonprofit manager). The ideal situation is to work in a real nonprofit job and get the education part-time. The education will mean so much more once you have some experience that allows you to apply the concepts one learns in such a program. Also, don't forget that business education is also in demand because nonprofit leaders must understand financial statements and know how to manage complex organizations.

[CK]

I agree with the above poster. I went straight into grad school for international affairs with an undergrad degree in engineering. And I wasn't surprised when I didn't get jobs easily... education helps you learn how to think and analyze but all that doesn't even begin to compare to real work experience. I do think you should have gotten credit for your internships and part time work ex but that's the best you can expect.

[Brenna]

I found this article interesting and would love to read Mysterious M's blog. However, all of the links lead to dead ends. Is there a problem with the blog or am I just not tech-savvy enough? How do I access it?

Thanks!

[Will Schneider]

Alas, M appears to have vanished. I'm sorry Brenna! M, if you're out there, we miss you!