CAREERS IN FOUNDATIONS
Hosted by Paula Foster
October 2001
The following Guest Speaker Discussion originally took place on WRK4US in October of the year 2001. Because WRK4US has a confidentiality policy, all names and email addresses have been altered or removed, except for the moderator's and the Guest Speakers'.
The discussion can be read in two ways- by simply scrolling down and reading the whole thing, or by clicking on the topical links below, which take you to specific places within the discussion. The discussion can also be printed out in its entirety for your reading convenience.
Special thanks to Amy Lynn Miller who volunteered her time to edit this discussion and prepare it for posting on the web. If you are interested in editing a future discussion, your help will be much appreciated; email Paula Foster, WRK4US List Manager, at pfchambers@sbcglobal.net .
Introduction to Guest Speakers
Beth Patrinicola Stewart, NEH
Richard Bennett, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
David Weinstein, NEH
Suzanne McMurphy, Ph.D., Pew Charitable Trusts
Maggie F. Keenan, Ed.D., Savannah Foundation
What is a Foundation?
Types of Foundations
Establishing a Foundation
Positions and Titles at Foundations
Discovering Employment Opportunities
Employment Opportunities at the NEH
Finding and Applying to Government Jobs
Presidential Management Internship (PMI) Program
Breaking Into Foundation Work
Hiring Process
Masters-level Employment
Evaluation and Assessment Work
Consulting
University Position/Ph.D. as Prerequisite
Salary
Pros & Cons of Foundation Work
Culture Outside Academe
Balance Between Intellectual Life and Work
Introduction of Guest Speakers
Beth Patrinicola Stewart
Program Specialist, Division of Public Programs
National Endowment for the Humanities
bstewart@neh.gov
My name is Beth Stewart, and I am a Program Specialist at the National Endowment for the Humanities. My job involves work with grant applications from museums, historical organizations, community organizations, and a range of other groups that work to bring humanities content to the general public in a variety of formats. These formats include exhibitions, web sites, reading and discussion programs, and even festivals. Much of my work is administrative, analytical, or technical in nature. In addition to my work ferrying grant proposals through our review process, I write reports on grant-making trends and manage the data base applications we use to record information about our grants. In the past year, I have also become involved in my agency's ongoing work to move office procedures online, so I have studied web page development quite a bit and have become very interested in a range of technology issues.
Before coming to the Endowment, I completed a M.A. in English, focusing on Early American texts. Though I had applied and been accepted with funding to the doctorate program at my university, I decided to leave because I felt isolated at the university and unsure that I was pursuing the right path. With the academic job market as it was, and still is, I felt that I needed to be sure my decision to continue my program was the right one, and I had found that I did not love teaching as much as I had thought I would. When I began looking for my first non-academic job, I turned to the NEH because I had completed an internship there immediately after finishing my bachelor's degree. I had been impressed at the time with the academic atmosphere of the endowment, and thought it would be a place where my background in the humanities would be an asset rather than a cause for apology. I have indeed found that intellectual life is an important component of work here, and like on an academic campus we have guest lectures, book or film discussion lunches, and a shared respect for critical thinking. However, unlike in the academic world, I can leave my work behind me when I leave the building, and that is something I have learned to appreciate very much. Like with any job, I have good days and bad days. On good days I feel part of a community of like-minded individuals with a common and important mission. I believe strongly in the importance of the work of my agency. On bad days, I feel frustrated with the slow pace of government agencies, limited by the definition of my job and the opportunities it presents, and mired in administrative and clerical tasks.
When I left the academic world, I wasn't certain whether I would return after a few years to complete a Ph.D. I have to say that I have had few if any regrets about leaving that world, though my life now is very different from the one I had imagined for myself as a student! I'm eager to hear list member's questions about what it's like working for a federal agency (albeit a small and rather unusual one), and how one negotiates the complicated federal job search and application processes. I would also love to see a resurgence of the fascinating discussion of a few months ago about searching for social and political meaning in one's work, as I formed the same questions when I decided to leave graduate school.
Richard Bennett
Program Officer
Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
bennett@woodrow.org
My name is Richard Bennett and I am a Program Officer at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (WWNFF) in Princeton, NJ.
My background first: after finishing my BA in Modern Languages and a Law qualification in the UK, I took advantage of a scholarship to study for my MA in English at McGill in Montreal. It was there that I began to learn more about the academic world in North America, and I decided I wanted to pursue a PhD. I went to Princeton to do a PhD in Comparative Literature. At that point, I knew that the academic job market was extremely difficult and that I could not expect an easy route into academia, but I knew at least that I wanted to pursue the PhD and then I could figure out what to do later.
During my PhD, I explored interests in various areas, through reading, part-time, volunteer, and summer jobs, and talking with friends and acquaintances. Those experiences were extremely valuable and I gradually became more and more inclined away from the academy and into a world that I hoped would enable me to pursue a broader agenda. Perhaps the most concrete sign of how my inclinations conflicted with an academia career path was that the reading I would do in my spare time was not about literature, but politics, current affairs, and policy. It was not that I didn't enjoy the academic world--I loved both teaching and the many intellectual opportunities--but I felt that academia demanded a greater specialization than I wanted myself.
By the time I finished my dissertation, I was actively exploring opportunities in the policy and non-profit worlds. I came to the Woodrow Wilson Foundation at a time when its new President, Robert Weisbuch, had begun aggressively to address the career situation in the humanities. As many on this list know very well, there are far fewer academic positions in the humanities than there are people qualified, experienced, and capable enough to fill them. The opportunity at the Foundation matched my interests and goals and I joined the Foundation initially to work primarily on the Humanities at Work initiative, but with a view to developing my career through experience with a range of Foundation programs. WWNFF's Humanities at Work initiative, then in its early infancy, had begun to articulate a vision of a more robust role for the humanities both within and beyond the academy. I had the opportunity to meet and work with a wide range of people, recent PhDs and grad students, university faculty, business people, etc. trying to develop ways to open up career opportunities for PhDs as well as to convince the wider world (and PhDs themselves) of the value of advanced education in the humanities. Many of you will already be aware of programs such as the Postdoctoral Careers Program, the National Mentoring Program, and the Woodrow Wilson Practicum Grants, and you can find more information on the WWNFF website: http://www.woodrow.org I found it very gratifying to work with people who have found new and challenging careers in a whole variety of areas and I continue to enjoy the chance to speak at conferences about the continuing work of the Foundation in this area. (I'll be on a panel with WRK4US's own leader, Paula Foster Chambers, and with Cindy Petrites from the University of Chicago's Career and Placement Office at the MLA Convention in New Orleans in December.)
After a year or so running the Humanities at Work initiative, I joined another initiative at the Foundation--the National Council on Education and the Disciplines--focused on strengthening the quality and continuity of learning in the later years of high school and the early years of college. This has taken me into the new and contrasting worlds of mathematics education and history education, where we are working to build solid connections between high schools, community colleges, and colleges and universities as well as to engage the disciplines to articulate their most vital educational goals.
My work at the Woodrow Wilson Foundation is extremely stimulating and challenging. It has also been quite varied, perhaps as a consequence of the kind of institution that WWNFF is. Unlike endowed Foundations that make extensive and substantial grants to fund a variety of programs, Woodrow Wilson is an operating foundation, meaning that we actually operate programs that seek to address important issues, in our case, in education. This requires us to get to know and develop the most energetic and promising ideas and the people and institutions that are working on them, and to come up with ways to implement good ideas and develop strong partnerships and networks. To do this, we depend upon grants from Foundations and Federal agencies and this in part shapes the work we do. Before we can embark on a promising idea, we need to convince others that it is worth investing in, and that we as an organization can make it happen.
Typically, work at the Foundation involves research, conceptualization, fundraising, and program development and implementation. This means that it is important to keep our eyes and ears open for strong ideas, develop networks of people and organizations that can help to develop these ideas into programs, write grant proposals to seek funding for these programs, implement the ideas once the funding comes through, disseminate these ideas and, where appropriate, find partners to take over successful programs once we have established a solid foundation for them. Specifically, then, the work includes grant writing, planning and running meetings, writing and making presentations about our work, making connections with people who are doing or may be interested in doing similar work, getting programs going and adapting them so they are sustainable and effective.
In short, my work at the Foundation is varied, challenging, and offers the opportunity to produce tangible results that can sometimes be elusive in an academic career. It is, however, still very closely connected with the academic world since many of our programs engage universities and their faculties. For me then it offers both intellectual and practical challenges, as well as a very close involvement with education on a larger scale than is usually possible in a single institution. I have also found it possible to move into areas in which I had only slight experience, such as K-12 education, Mathematics education etc.
I will be happy to respond to any questions that subscribers may have about the work of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, my own experiences, or the general challenge of translating one's academic experience into an asset for the world beyond the academy. I also look forward to learning more about the work of the other "guest speakers" and hearing the conversation.
David Weinstein
Program Officer
NEH, Division of Public Programs
dweinstein@neh.gov
A Little About Me
In the olden days (the mid-1990s), when I was a graduate student, I listened to lots of records and worked as an adjunct professor for a variety of American studies and media studies courses. I also found free-lance positions in public history (archivist, oral historian, researcher, writer) and the film industry (image researcher, production assistant, writer, consultant). Since earning my Ph.D. from the University of Maryland (American Studies) in 1997, I have continued to move between university and non-academic life. I conducted litigation research and analysis for a year at a Rockville, Maryland firm called History Associates Incorporated. I then spent two wonderful years as a visiting assistant professor in the Communication Department at George Mason University, where I taught mass communication and video production full-time. I began working at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in May 2000. I use time away from the office to work on a book, under contract to Temple University Press, on the history of early television and the DuMont Television Network. Oh yeah, I still listen to lots of records.
What I Do
I am a program officer in the Division of Public Programs at the NEH, an independent federal agency whose mission is to enrich American cultural life by promoting the study of history and culture. While the Endowment awards grants for a range of activities, I focus on radio and television documentaries.
I help potential applicants understand the NEH media program and manage the process through which proposals are reviewed. I also monitor radio and TV projects that have been awarded grants. The job entails travel to professional meetings, including film and radio festivals and academic conferences. It also requires administrative and management skills, as the six program officers in media help to establish new grant programs, outreach plans, and guidelines for grants. Many of these policy decisions are made in cooperation with others in the division and the agency.
I have been interested in documentary film, public history, and the humanities for most of my professional life. At the NEH, I continue to use and develop skills in these areas. The agency offers an intellectually robust and stimulating environment, not unlike that of a college campus. I am compelled to keep abreast of current research in the humanities, as I help media producers present strong humanities scholarship to the public. I would be happy to talk (or write) more about myself, my record collection, the NEH, public history, and the humanities. Let's go. I look forward to our virtual discussion
Suzanne McMurphy, Ph.D.
Officer, Planning and Evaluation
Pew Charitable Trusts
My name is Suzanne McMurphy and I am an officer in Planning and Evaluation at the Pew Charitable Trusts. I have been at the Trusts approximately one year-here is my story on how I arrived in this position and what my job entails.
My friends, family, colleagues and professors would tell you that I am the least likely person to have ever left the academy. I intentionally organized my life from high school through graduate school to fulfill my dream of becoming a professor-a path on which I no longer find myself after all these years. The day I graduated from college--Phi Beta Kappa with honors and three majors--I was so excited about starting graduate school that I packed all of my possessions into my parents car to store in their basement and hitchhiked to Philadelphia to work until I started school that fall. I had been accepted to a number of graduate schools to pursue master's degrees in religious studies, sociology or social services. I chose Philadelphia as I had completed an internship there during my senior year in college and had enjoyed my visits to Bryn Mawr College, so I chose to go there to study for a dual master's degree in social services and law. My master's studies focused on social science research and analysis and I taught my first statistics class while a master's student. One year after completing my second master's I started my Ph.D. in social policy.
I continued to teach statistics and research methodology throughout my Ph.D. as well as worked as a statistical consultant and project manager for a private research firm. While I was taking my comprehensive exams I applied for several grants to support me in writing my doctoral dissertation, including a Fulbright to Sweden, where I had been an exchange student in high school. I had forgotten about the application until a mangled package arrived in the mail-having been lost in the mail for several weeks. Just long enough to get me through my written and oral comprehensives without the distraction and excitement of the Fulbright award.
I left for Sweden and ended up staying for five years, working on my dissertation and starting a second Ph.D. in Sociology. After five years, I decided that I needed to come back to the States and at least start the tenure track process, where I would hopefully find a position where I could share my time between Sweden and the U.S. I got my first tenure track position at the University of Vermont and then, after writing several grants, was invited to take a tenure track at the University of New Hampshire and continue my international research.
My shock at the working life of being a junior faculty member at the academy can't be overstated. This was the job of my dreams, I had spent most of my adult life in the academy, either as a student, a Ph.D. candidate, a post-doctoral student, an adjunct professor and finally tenure track faculty. I had had all the right preparation, I had taught in graduate school, I had gotten great teaching evaluations, I had gotten research grants, I had had a Fulbright and I was just starting to publish. I knew the politics and I had seen inside the academy. I thought I was prepared for what it would be like as a junior faculty member: and I was wrong. I was miserable. The skills of surviving the politics of a university was something that no one had prepared me for. The gender discrimination, the scarce resource politics and the oppression of junior faculty were all situations I had never experienced before. And it was relentless. I kept thinking it would get better as I came closer to tenure, instead it seemed to get worse. Finally, I felt that I had to take a break and decide if this was really the only context where I could feel intellectually challenged, fulfill my desire to gain new knowledge and be creative and stimulated. When the opportunity to take a position at the Pew Charitable Trusts came along-I applied for the job.
I am now an officer in the Planning and Evaluation Department at the Trusts, where I oversee all of the research and evaluation for the Health and Human Services and Culture Departments. This means that I am responsible for working with the program staff in both of those areas, assist them in thinking through new grantmaking strategies and evaluating existing grants. I am one of four officers in my Department, each of whom are responsible for the oversight of evaluation in two grantmaking areas. The Pew Charitable Trusts is one of the largest foundations in the country-we have approximately 4.6 billion dollars in assets and give away around 263 million dollars a year. You probably know us best from our tag line on NPR (Investing in Ideas, Returning Results) but you probably don't hear as much about our work in wilderness protection, health and disease tracking, campaign finance reform or historical preservation. We fund in six different areas: Education, Culture, Health and Human Services, Religion, Public Policy and Environment. We also have an interdisciplinary fund which we call Venture Fund. You can learn more about us at
http://www.pewtrusts.com if you are interested.
My work varies widely from working with program staff as they are thinking through new areas to fund, working with current grantees to design evaluations of their projects, and conducting cluster evaluations of entire grantmaking strategies. The research projects are often focused on gathering information on the substantive areas that program staff are thinking of funding (for example, gathering data on the current knowledge of a specific issue in public health or national culture or identifying successful tactics for addressing a social problem.) The evaluation projects are often focused on measuring the impact that the work has had on the specific social issue it was intended to address. My days often consist of meetings with internal staff or external grantees and consultants. While I design all of our research projects, I don't carry out any of my own research, I hire a consultant to carry out the work instead. Given my background in research, however, I work quite closely with my consultants.
I love the intellectual work of designing funding strategies and assessing the success of our grantmaking efforts. I meet a lot of very interesting people and can hire as consultants the very people whose books I was using at the academy. I work with wonderful creative people who are doing very interesting projects. We are constantly in motion, either thinking through new areas to fund, examining our current work or thinking about the role of philanthropy in general. There are few dull moments-however, there can sometimes be too many meetings, no matter how interesting.
I really miss teaching and I miss carrying out my own research, although I am still the PI on several large grants (carryovers from my faculty days) and so I am able to satisfy this need at night and on the weekends. I miss having my days as my own-I now have 9-5 hours (more like 8-7 hours) and work on the weekends as well. I don't really work more-but I work within greater constraints (I can't work at home, for example). I travel about 25% of my time-but I can't get to Sweden as much as I used to for my international projects. I may go back to the academy, I haven't decided yet. But for now-this is a great job.
Please feel free to ask me any questions about either my job-or the job of my program colleagues. Most people at the officer level at the Trusts have Ph.D.s and many of them are in the Humanities. We hire people who have expertise in specific substantive areas (the economics of culture, civic engagement or sociology of religion, for example) depending upon the funding area that needs overseeing. I hire a number of consultants who have Humanities backgrounds, for example, I will soon need a consultant who has a background in both economics and arts and culture for example. I would love to tell you more-please let me know what you are interested in hearing about.
Maggie F. Keenan, Ed.D.
Program Director
Savannah Foundation
I graduated in 1983 with an Assoc. in Dental Hygiene (think this was a parental choice). Practiced for 15 years.... while going to school part time to earn my Bachelor's of General Studies, Master's of Interdisciplinary Studies (bus. admin., pub. admin. and adult ed), then graduated from UGA in 1995 with a doctoral degree in higher education. My first job was teaching dental hygiene as an Assist. Prof. (temp. position), since I had most of my experience in that field. I did not enjoy that experience. At the end of the academic year, the contract was not renewable...phew!! So, I literally made a phone call to the foundation and created a part-time position at The Savannah Foundation doing grant writing and research for non profit agencies. I continued doing hygiene part-time to help pay bills). Been at The Foundation ever since and over the past 5 years, the position developed as the Program Director job. I still keep my foot in academe as an adjunct teaching 1 evening in a doctoral program - higher ed. admin. I teach law, finance, and org. theory. However, my everyday position is interesting. Not too challenging though. I manage all post-secondary scholarships and the grant making programs for the Foundation. I aslo do all PR, reports and any outreach service. What I enjoy most is having the opportunity to create new programs that help meet community needs. I am an IDEA person. Someone else raises the money... I just put it to good use. I enjoy having the chance to do independent research in the field of philanthropy and there's plenty to be done (if I want to -- but I don't at this time because I do not make it a priority). But, from time to time engage in research projects with other colleagues when they ask me and if I have the time and interest. My philosophy about having a doctoral degree and working outside of academe is this: It's not too easy or should I say, it's as challenging as other people make it for you. I have come to understand at least two things...you really are as smart as you think you are and while the smartest you'll ever be is the day you sit for your comprehensive exams. I have come to value my degree as a tool which I choose to use to pave new ways. I tend not too introduce myself or disclose that I have a doctorate. Why? I don't think it really matters to folks. I'd much rather them find out from someone else. I have personally selected to work full time outside of academe. Why? because I truly do not enjoy teaching...(however, when I do I am certain to give 110% to students who pay to take a course) I much prefer research!!!
For those soon to earn a doctoral degree or for those who are deciding what to do as a career with their new doctoral degree, or for those with a doctoral degree and currently working outside academe... you have to decide what your strengths are and find a way to combine that with your what you know best. Be open to be continuously evolving and changing your interests. I am passionate about philanthropy, foundation work, and having the latitude to work both in and out of academe at this time in my life. It's all good.
Comment From Paula Foster:
Brief note on "agencies" versus "foundations." I included Beth and David from the NEH because even though the NEH is technically a government agency, it is an agency that makes grants, and is thus a lot more like a foundation than a traditional government agency.
Comment From Suzanne McMurphy:
Here is a book that was recommended to my associate to read about foundations when she was looking for her job. She says it was very helpful. The information follows:
The Insider's Guide to Grantmaking
How Foundations Find, Fund and Manage Effective Programs
A book by
Joel J. Orosz.
Author Joel Orosz not only introduces readers to the history, structure, and function of foundations in society, but also explores the complex role that program officers play in their day-to-day activities. He provides real-world advice on a myriad of tasks - from meeting with applicants and reviewing their proposals to assisting the funded project and managing foundation initiatives.
He also asks critical questions about this growing and evolving profession. What kind of person should become a grantmaker? How does one avoid the seven temptations of philanthropy?
Orosz is a program director in Philanthropy and Volunteerism at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. He earned his Ph.D. in American history from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Throughout the book, Orosz informs his lively, thoughtful discussions with his own considerable experience in grantmaking.
Contents include:
- Making Sense of the Grantmaking Universe
- Grantmaking: The Human Factor
- Building Relationships with Applicants
- Reviewing Proposals
- Declining Proposals
- Responding to Proposals
- Site Visits
- Writing the Funding Document
- Presenting the Funding Document
- Managing the Project
- Closing the Project
- Leveraging Impact
- Influencing Policy
- Initiative-Based Grantmaking
- The Ethics of Grantmaking
- Epilogue: The Future of Formal Philanthropy
The Insider's Guide to Grantmaking is available in hardcover (276 pages) beginning April 2000. It is priced at $32.95 (plus shipping) and can be ordered directly from the publisher (Item #G956-FX802).
To order, follow the link below to Jossey-Bass Publishers, 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco, California 94104 (800-956-7739; Canada: 800-866-5559):
http://www.josseybass.com/catalog/isbn/0-7879-5238-9/ .
The URL for the shopping cart for the book is http://www.josseybass.com/cgi-bin/catalog/order?isbn=0-7879-5238-9 .
Special quantity discounts are available to those who purchase 10 or more copies.
Types of Foundations
Question From Paula Foster:
Speakers, can you tell us more about the distinction between "operating" foundations, "community" foundations, "endowed" foundations, and other types of foundations? How many types are there, and how should we understand the differences?
Answer From Maggie Keenan:
I work for a community foundation. A community foundation is a 501(c)3. It's funds come in many ways. Mainly, folks of wealth, families, etc... establish a fund by depositing in the form of a gift, money to then be invested by the foundation and then over time... funds are distributed in the form of grant or scholarships. A fund is created in perpetuity. Essentially, the foundation serves as an investment vehicle for charitable giving. We are different from independent foundations/ private foundations (ie. The Fred Kane Foundation) in that we are not obligated to give the 5% away that private foundations must do.
Answer From A.T.:
The Kettering Foundation is a research foundation that devises and tests strategies that will strengthen the role of citizens in governing themselves. Areas of focus include Citizens and Public Choice; Community Politics and Community Leadership ; The Public and Public Schools; Institutions, Professionals, and the Public; The Public-Government Relationship and The International and the Civil. Their work is very interdisciplinary. The foundation does not make grants, but often establishes joint ventures with other organizations whose interests are similar. The work here is supported by a large endowment.
Question From Paula Foster:
This question is for all five speakers.
We seem to have gotten pulled into a discussion of *government* jobs, which while very interesting, does not cover the entire territory of our topic. Before this discussion is over, we need to learn more about non-governmental foundations as well. For example, I would still like to know more about different types of non-government foundations and how to distinguish between them.
Two pieces of information--what types of foundations are out there, and what positions may exist within them--would be very helpful to anyone interested in foundation employment.
Comment From Paula Foster:
In my ongoing effort to understand the various types of foundations and positions within them, I have synthesized everyone's comments into the following tentative stab at some definitions (below). First I define the different types of foundations, then I describe the various positions within a foundation.
Speakers, will you please correct anything and everything that may be wrong with these definitions? There is probably a lot wrong with them because some of the time, I'm just guessing.
GENERIC DEFINITION OF A FOUNDATION:
A Foundation is essentially a vehicle for charitable giving. Money is given to the foundation, the foundation invests it, and the income from the investments is used to fund programs and projects related to the mission of the foundation. Most foundations are obligated to give away at least 5% of their money every year. (I assume that means their investment income, not their principal?)
TYPES OF FOUNDATIONS
"Endowed Foundations" are often created by a single wealthy individual or family donating a large sum of money (the "endowment") to establish the foundation. Often the donor(s) determine the mission of the foundation, which could be very broad (to advance the arts and humanities) or relatively narrow (to further the cause of women's reproductive rights in a certain geographical area). Example: The Pew Charitable Trust, where Suzanne works. (Would this perchance have been founded by the Pew family?)
"Community Foundations" are funded by smaller gifts from a larger number of donors. These funds are invested and the income is used to fund programs and projects that benefit the local community. Example: The Savannah Foundation, where Maggie works. Unlike other types of foundations, community foundations are not obligated to give away 5%. (Why not?)
"Operating Foundations"---These are different in that they have no money of their own but rather apply for grant money themselves, which they then pass along to other, smaller projects related to their own missions. Example: Richard's organization, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. (How do operating foundations pay their own operating expenses?)
"Government Agencies that Resemble Foundations"--Using public (and private?) money, these agencies fund projects related to their specific mission. Example: The NEH, where Beth [Patrinicola Stewart] and David [Weinstein] work.
I would bet that with the exception of government agencies, all of the above are 501(c)(3) organizations. (Have I missed any?)
Response From Richard Bennett:
Just to clarify the "operating foundation" category: We use the term at the Woodrow Wilson Foundation to distinguish ourselves from the many large Foundations with significant endowments which distribute grants to forward specific purposes.
The Woodrow Wilson Foundation has only a very small endowment, income from which is one (fairly insignificant) source of funds to meet operating expenses. We seek funds from various grant-making bodies, mostly large, endowed foundations and the federal government, to pursue programs that we believe meet important needs--in our case in education. This gives us both more and less freedom than foundations such as Ford, Mellon, Carnegie, Pew, Rockefeller, etc. More freedom in that we are not constrained by the stipulations of those that endowed the organization and in theory at least can develop programs that we think are important. We also are obviously not bound by stipulations about how much money we spend (i.e. percentage of assets) and whether we can make grants to individuals or only organizations etc. etc. Less freedom in that we depend on the resources of others to be able to carry out these programs.
We also differ from traditional endowed foundations in that we generally engage directly in program work, rather than providing others with the resources--financial and technical--to carry out that work. We often combine these roles through partnerships with other organizations, such as universities. In many ways, there is a symbiotic relationship between organizations such as ours and large grant-making foundations. We need resources to carry out our program goals and they need organizations to make good use of their resources to further their own goals.
As to the question of where an organization such as Woodrow Wilson gets its operating funds: These come from a combination of sources. Primarily, we depend on donations to our Annual Fund to support the ongoing operations of the Foundation. In addition, we use the income from investments and assets that the Foundation owns, as well as those portions of grants we receive that support the costs of our operations. We are developing other kinds of funds that can support the experimental part of our work: some foundations have offered us support of this kind in the form of challenge grants that must be matched by grants and donations from other sources.
I hope this helps. I'm not sure how much can be generalized from this description to other organizations, but there are a range of non-profit organizations that may operate in a similar way.
Response From V.M.:
Here are some other fuzzy definitions about foundations
Family Foundations-- are foundations that remain tied to or strongly influenced by ties to their donor families. The Duke Endowment is a BIG family foundation(it supports Duke University, Davidson College, and other defined institutions), but many of the country's small foundations are in this category-- e.g. great-grandpa was "normal-people" rich (as opposed to reallyreallyreally rich) and put a couple of million in a foundation, from which his great-grandchildren now do a few thousands of dollars a year in grantmaking.
Private Independent Foundations-- are foundations, without remaining ties to families or corporations, that are generally grantmaking organizations.
Private Operating Foundations-- are foundations, without remaining ties to families or corporations, that run charitable programs. The Carnegie Endowment, which does peace work, is one. I think the Barnes Collection (art) is another.
Corporate Foundations-- are foundations tied to corporations, generally involved in grantmaking. Corporate foundations can be endowed, or can be given gifts by their corporation each year, or both. The Lilly Endowment, a very large foundation, is an example. Not all corporate giving programs are foundations.
Conversion foundations-- are made by conversion of non-profits to for-profit status. For example, in some markets, charity hospitals end up selling their hospital because of aggressive growth of HMOs. Since charity hospitals operate in the public good, the proceeds from sales are required to continue working for the public good. The non-profit, using the assets from the sale, is -converted- into a new non-profit (or the same non-profit corporation is turned to a related new mission, like a former hospital's assets being turned to improving health and well-being in the inner city). The Sisters of Charity Foundation in Charleston SC is an example of one of these. This is a real growth area these days, mostly because of HMOs' impact on hospitals and mutual insurance societies. If you need to stay in a given geographic area, this may be
Voluntaries-- like the American Cancer Society, are grantmaking non-profits that raise money to carry out their activities.
Public Charities-- voluntaries are public charities, as are things like historical preservation societies. These are organizations that do good works and raise money from the public, as well as from the government and from foundations.
Although the tax code "501(c)3" is sometimes thought of as equivalent to "non-profit", public charities are incorporated under another line of the tax code-- they are 509(a)1 non-profit organizations.
I didn't realize that the Wilson Foundation raised funds! On reading that, I was reminded of another NY non-profit, the Damon Runyan-Walter Winchell Foundation, which supports cancer research, in part from the sales of Broadway tickets. Isn't that neat? (I always wanted to be a Damon Runyan Fellow-- I'd've bought myself a fedora!)
Establishing a Foundation
Question From L.J.:
Thank you for the all great information so far. I am a second year PhD student at **** focusing on history and religion of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. I have been pondering the feasibility of starting a small, independent foundation.
First, is this feasible? Second, if I already have a masters would it be necessary to finish the PhD? And third, does anyone have any recommendations for how to get started?
Positions and Titles at Foundations
Question From S.G.:
I am a Ph.D. candidate working on my dissertation at the **** in the History of Art. I was interested to hear about the hiring practices at the Pew Charitable Trust, specifically, the opportunities for consultants. How do these opportunities and responsibilities compare to those of officers? of interns? Could you offer more information about how to market oneself for these opportunities?
Answer From Suzanne McMurphy:
Consultants are used in several ways here at the Trusts. Usually they are one-time contracts to do a specific task that we need completed. This could include meeting with us for a couple hours to think through a particular issue, it could include conducting background research on social issues that we are interested in, or it might include carrying out a complete research project that we have designed. We find consultants by looking through the literature for those who have published and have an expertise in an area, by referral from our grantees and by recommendation from other consultants.
The work of a program officer is more expansive and includes the development of funding strategies and the oversight of a grant portfolio. The program officer will hire consultants as they need to inform their work.
The best way to find out about program officer and associate jobs are to check our website where we post all of our open positions. If there is one that you are interested in--send in your resume and it will stay on file with us where we check whenever we have a position opening.
As for becoming a consultant--that is a little more difficult as those opportunities arise unpredictably--depending upon when we decide to seek the assistance. Since we often look for consultants through referral, working with one of our grantees or someone that is already working on a contract with us is one way to have your expertise become known.
Question From M.B.:
Suzanne [McMurphy], I am curious about the difference between a Program Officer and a Program Associate at the Pew Trusts. For instance, are the requirements listed in the online job posting for the open position of Program Associate (in religion) similar to those of your own position? And, one of those requirements is at least 3 years in a similar job; if one possesses many of the other qualifications listed but has little experience with program planning and management, would he or she be seriously considered? (I should add that this is not my field and I'm not applying for this position.)
Answer From Suzanne McMurphy:
Associates at the Trusts, for the most part, provide support to an officer. In some program areas they might carry their own portfolio of grants to manage, but not in every area. In planning and evaluation, since we don't do any grantmaking but instead work with the program areas on their needs for evaluation, operate like research analysts. They assist on developing evaluation plans, doing consultant searches, literature reviews, participate in internal meetings to develop evaluation projects, develop logic models, etc. All things that an research associate would do for a faculty member for example. The officer functions as the faculty--as the person who is the direct line of contact for the external world and the creator and manager of evaluation projects--or the overall grant portfolio. There is very little movement between the associate level and the officer level. It has happened in the past--but it is rare. The associate position is not seen as a stepping stone for an officer. Usually the officer has an established background in the particular substantive area, more management experience, etc.--the associate would be expected to have some experience in the substantive area, but would not be expected to have as much experience as an officer. Usually associates have just graduated from college with a masters--or are working on Ph.D. and are not expecting to be promoted to an officer position.
If you had most of the qualifications, but not as much experience in planning and management, it would be worth applying. As an associate, those are skills you could develop on the job. As an officer, you would be expected to have those types of management skills already.
Question From Paula Foster:
Also helpful would be basic, generic definitions of frequently-used job titles such as "program officer," "program director," and other positions that are commonly found within foundations.
Two pieces of information--what types of foundations are out there, and what positions may exist within them--would be very helpful to anyone interested in foundation employment.
Answer From A.T.:
The working atmosphere [at the Kettering Foundation] is very collegial and I find I prefer the environment here to anything I experienced in academia. I believe there are nine program officers who each oversee several areas of the foundation's work. Though several have doctorates, some have masters degrees and they all have very diverse backgrounds. Beyond program officers, there are about thirty other staff that have a variety of educational backgrounds.
Question From J.S.:
Another question on "program officers"--
Does experience as a "Program Director" in a non-profit organization translate to the level of a program officer in a foundation? I'm ABD in history and am working as a Program Director at an educational non-profit, and I'm wondering if that experience would make me a good candidate for some for the program officer jobs being discussed.
Answer From Suzanne McMurphy:
Yes--that would make a good comparison for the officer level at the [Pew] Trusts. To answer your question and Paula [Foster]'s question on the difference in the various positions (at least as they are here at the Trusts), the Directors of each Department oversee all of the activities and provide upper management direction for the foundation. Officers manage the grantmaking portfolios of the Departments, working with the Director to determine the direction of the Department's grantmaking and then overseeing the grants that are made. The Associates assist the officers--sometimes carrying their own grant portfolio, but usually after the Officer has set up the grants. Here in Planning and Evaluation, there are 4 officers responsible for all of the evaluation activities in the Departments. We each carry two areas--I have HHS and Culture, for example. In P & E we don't have grant portfolios, but I have a number of grant evaluations which I manage for those two Departments instead. So as an officer in Planning and Evaluation, it was important that I had managed evaluation projects before I started here. Your experience as a Director of a non-profit would translate well to an Officer position in the grantmaking areas.
Question From Paula Foster:
Suzanne [McMurphy] wrote: "As an officer, you would be expected to have those types of management skills already."
Hmmm...If you can't work your way up to Program Officer by starting as a Program Associate, then where do Program Officers come from?
Answer From Suzanne McMurphy:
They come from having experience outside of the foundation. I gave a couple examples in my previous e-mail, but can give a couple more if that helps. Most of our officers had management experience in other organizations such as non-profit directors, managers in consulting firms, or from Washington based think tanks. Since an officer is hired to oversee a grant portfolio it is important that they come with management experience as well as understand the field in which they will be making grants--having a large network of contacts in a particular field as well as understanding the substantive issues in a field. For myself, I have about 15 years as a private evaluator, have been a Principal Investigator on 3 federal grants, 2 state level grants and the lead consultant on a number of private research projects.
The reason that movement is rare from Associate to Officer--is that typically Associates don't come with the same length of time in a field or with that level of management experience.
Comment From Paula Foster:
In my ongoing effort to understand the various types of foundations and positions within them, I have synthesized everyone's comments into the following tentative stab at some definitions (below). First I define the different types of foundations, then I describe the various positions within a foundation.
Speakers, will you please correct anything and everything that may be wrong with these definitions? There is probably a lot wrong with them because some of the time, I'm just guessing.
POSITIONS WITHIN FOUNDATIONS:
Department Directors--in larger foundations such as the Pew Charitable Trust, department directors oversee all of the program officers in their own departments and report to the highest leadership of the foundation as a whole, suggesting future directions and providing information about program outcomes.
Program Officers--Program Officers create or oversee specific grants or groups of grants (aka grant portfolios). The position is analogous to "faculty" at a university or "chief investigator" in research. Program Officers often, but not always, have PhDs. The position requires substantive experience and lots of contacts in a particular subject area, along with management experience, ideally gained in other organizations.
Program Associates--support staff to the Program Officers. Analogous to research assistants working under the direction of faculty. Sometimes these are PhDs, but very often they are MAs or PhD students. It's a good entry level position, from which much can be learned about foundations and their missions, but Program Associates seldom get promoted to Program Officer in the same foundation.
At the risk of reifying hierarchical constructs, who is "above" the Program Directors, and who is "below" the Program Associates?
Discovering Employment Opportunities
Question From H.G.:
First, thanks to all the guests for their comments, which were interesting and helpful (same for the other participants). I am currently working on my Ph.D., and am undecided as to whether I will continue on in academia or move into an NGO/foundation-type setting when I finish. There are a few groups whose work in my field (archaeology and architectural history) is of interest to me broadly, but I don't know the specifics of work done by their employees.
My question to the speakers is whether it is appropriate to approach the foundations for informational interviews, and if so, how does one do this? Are there better ways to find out about opportunities offered by a specific group besides webpages etc?
Answer From Richard Bennett:
This is a response to H.G.'s question about informational interviews and the like. I think what I have to say is fairly generally applicable. Basically, H.G. touches on a crucial element of a career search: informed chance. I think there are lots of ways one can "load the dice" in one's favor.
For example, find out as much as possible about what is out there--by asking friends, acquaintances, colleagues, family members, strangers, etc. etc. about what they do, what their friends do and so on. Web sites of course offer very valuable means of learning about organizations and their work, as well as openings at different places.
Because so many positions are never advertised (and here I expect the Federal Government does *not* fit this model), talking to people at different organizations that interest you can be a great way to learn about opportunities either at that organization or in a similar one. Word of mouth can be so powerful. It's definitely worth volunteering, taking part-time or contract work, and talking to people about their work and their organizations.
So, to be specific, yes, it is appropriate to contact people directly and ask for brief informational interviews (there is a great deal of information at career services centers and web sites about the etiquette of informational interviewing). And, in my view, talking to people is a very good way to get to know more about an organization. Many campus career services have lists of alums who have expressed a willingness to talk about their work. The Woodrow Wilson Foundation has a national mentoring program (http://www.woodrow.org/phd/Mentoring/mentoring_faq.html) in which people have volunteered to assist grad students and recent PhDs. In addition, many fields have associations and conferences that are good places to go to meet people and learn more about organizations and opportunities.
Perhaps others have different suggestions?
Answer From V.M.:
For identifying foundations that are appropriate to someone with your background, I'd suggest paying attention to which foundations support work in your area of expertise-- look at the acknowledgements in papers and published books and in the program/agenda books from major meetings to see who's giving funding and/or moral support.
In many funding organizations, program officers (aka program directors, program managers) are very accessible folks whose job descriptions include a large component of "talking to smart people about interesting stuff". Odds are they'd enjoy talking to you.
Once you've identified a foundation that works in your area of interest, you might try calling or emailing a program officer and asking if you can find some time to talk to them about how they got into that line of work. Operating foundations (which often aren't funders) also have some very people-oriented staffers who would probably be willing to talk with you.
Cold-calling for information always sounds scary, but try it a few times: you'll be amazed how decent, helpful and kind folks can be.
Answer From Suzanne McMurphy:
Regarding H.G.'s question on other ways to find out about jobs at foundations--approaching program officers for information interviews would be a good way to find out about the content of their jobs and more specifically about upcoming job opportunities. At least for Pew--all of our hiring is done through Human Resources so even though we might be aware of a position--or even have one in our own Department, the process will be overseen by someone else. That is why for us--following the website is the most efficient way to get current job information. The personal contact through an informational interview is a good way to gain further insight into these types of jobs and if the organization is of interest to you.
Answer From Maggie Keenan:
H.G., that's how I got into my position.... I simply called, asked for an informational interview, learned about the foundation, left my resume, and BAM the job was created on a part time, contractual basis (10 hrs a week) But, the director was very visionary and very open-minded. My philosophy is: if you are looking for a job, it is your job (8 hrs a day.. more or less) to find or create a job. Remain optimistic and not desperate... others pick up on this. While it is worth networking, making calls and keeping a detailed log of who you called, name contact information, etc...(and I recommend you keep this log for several years, I have found that people tend to forget about your interests...So, what I find very entrepreneurial is having the ability to think outside the box and be creative in career choices. In some cities, there are organizations or informal networks of women professionals who tend to meet for lunches, happy hours or even at barnes & nobles places... and their meetings most likely will be posted in your local newspaper, or perhaps you could start your own small group 3-5 of those getting ready to graduated and meet (that's what I did with just 2 other students in my department way back when, poor and met at a cheap pizza place). It does offer a type of support and feedback and understanding that each can appreciate. You meet not just to gab but to really conduct the business of how your job search is coming along. It is a way to be accountable. Also, and I think this is most important.... is deciding where you think you want to live (small town, big city, near the coast, or mountains) and conduct your search near that place. There is nothing worse (well there is but) than living in a place where you REALLY do not want to be.
Answer From A.T.:
The [Kettering] foundation has at least two ABD fellowships every year--learn more about the Foundation and opportunities at http://www.kettering.org/fellowship.html .
Question From M.C.:
My question is similar to the one that was recently posted. I hold a Ph.D. in German Literature with a minor in Musicology; my undergrad major was Literature. I have published extensively in the scholarly journals, and I have five books in print. The focus of my research is the interrelation of music and literature, in particular, German opera. Because of my broad liberal arts background, and my love of literature, music, and theater, I would like to learn more about careers in foundations. But, as someone who is unfamiliar with life outside of academia, I have no idea of what foundation is which, and what jobs at foundations I would be qualified for.
How would I go about finding out just which foundations might be interested in my background, and the jobs in which they could use my skills? Can you recommend me some specific, concrete steps for putting this plan into action? I'm sure there would be many ways in which NEH or an educational foundation, as well as arts organizations, could use my skills and talents.
Question From M.B.:
To all: what is the best way to do an online search for foundations in a particular geographical area? I have tried searching my city name and a combination of �foundations' �nonprofits' and �humanities.' Any better suggestions out there?
Answer From V.M.:
The Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers website, http://www.rag.org/, is one good place to find out about what foundations are located in a region. The Foundation Directory, which is probably in your university or main branch public library, also lists foundations geographically.
Question From D.B.:
This question is for everyone (with a special request for A.T.).
Thank you for such informative conversation - and thank you to Paula [Foster] for facilitating this list. I have a question about finding a position at a particular foundation where one is interested in working. If a foundation does not list its job openings on its web-site, how can someone find out whether it has openings? For example, I searched the Kettering Foundation site and could find no job listings and no category for job listings. (A.T. says that she found her job at Kettering through a temp agency; I assume it was a local Dayton agency. What if one is not located in Dayton, Ohio?) Should an e-mail message or a snail mail letter be sent (to human resources?) to inquire about possible openings? I know it was suggested earlier that foundation job listings could be found in places like the Chronicle, but this seems most useful for general searching. But, what is the best way to discover if a particular foundation has openings? (This question is not just intended to apply to the Kettering Foundation)
(By the way, because of other work I'm engaged in right now, I am mainly interested in a part-time research position - the kind it sounds like A.T. has at Kettering. Because of this, I'm interested in talking more to A.T. about the work she is doing at Kettering, so if you have time to contact me, A.T., I'd greatly appreciate hearing from you.)
Answer From A.T.:
Since I have only been at Kettering for about two months, I'm still learning how the foundation works. One thing seems true of this private foundation: if they find a talented/smart person who is interested in their work, they will try to find a job for you. There are at least three other people working here fulltime who started at a temp agency. Some have administrative assistant type jobs while other have research or coordinator type jobs. I knew of the Kettering Foundation before I moved and had checked out their web site, and was considering contacting them. The temp agency turned out to my advantage obviously.
There are several part time researchers/writers who have been associated with the foundation for a while, and if I get a chance I will try to talk to them tomorrow and find out how they ended up here.
I guess what I would do is take a look at the staff list at a foundation one was interested in, and email or call them for more information. I certainly cannot speak for anyone, but I find the program officers very friendly and open to discussing their work or learning about yours.
I would also echo Richard Bennett's comments that if you are just starting out and still figuring out what you are going to do with your advanced degree, taking any position at a foundation would be a good start. And it is a confidence boost. I've already written a couple of memos on my research that may not have been the best, but at a monthly plenary session some of my research was passed out to everyone, and I have to say that felt good. The fact that the pay is substantially more than you will ever get paid as a graduate student on a stipend happens to be a very nice bonus.
Answer From V.M.:
[Message abbreviated]
Looking to fill a job at your foundation or nonprofit organization? Why not join the hundreds of organizations and thousands of job seekers who rely on our Job Corner service? Posting a job(s) is fast, easy, and FREE. Simply send your job description in the body of an e-mail message or as an MS Word attachment to:
jobcorner@fdncenter.org
Job descriptions received by Thursday noon (EST) will be posted to the Job Corner within 24 hours; descriptions received after noon on Thursday will be posted the following Monday.
To browse the complete list of Job Corner openings (610+ new jobs posted in the last two months), visit:
http://fdncenter.org/pnd/jobs/
http://fdncenter.org/pnd/jobs/index_pcs.html http://fdncenter.org/pnd/jobs/index_corp.html http://fdncenter.org/pnd/jobs/index_edus.html http://fdncenter.org/pnd/jobs/index_npos_calif.html http://fdncenter.org/pnd/jobs/index_npos_mid_atlantic.html http://fdncenter.org/pnd/jobs/index_npos_midwest.html http://fdncenter.org/pnd/jobs/index_npos_new_england.html http://fdncenter.org/pnd/jobs/index_npos_newyork.html http://fdncenter.org/pnd/jobs/index_npos_northwest.html http://fdncenter.org/pnd/jobs/index_npos_southeast.html http://fdncenter.org/pnd/jobs/index_npos_southwest.html http://fdncenter.org/pnd/jobs/index_npos_dc.html
To unsubscribe from the Job Corner Alert list, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG with the words
SIGNOFF Job-Alert
in the body of your message. Or use our handy subscription management page at:
http://fdncenter.org/newsletters/
To rejoin the list, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG with the words
SUBSCRIBE Job-Alert <your name, no brackets>
in the body of the message. Or visit us on the Web at:
http://fdncenter.org/newsletters/
If you have a question or would like more information about the list, send an e-mail to the list administrator at:
MFN@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG
Copyright © 2000-2001, the Foundation Center. All rights reserved. Permission to use, copy, and/or distribute this document in whole or in part for non-commercial purposes without fee is hereby granted provided that this notice and appropriate credit to the Foundation Center is included in all copies.
Answer From V.M.:
Sorry, the long message with job listings should have started with a note saying subscription info for the list that came from is at the bottom.
Another good place to look for job listings is At the Philanthropy News Network:
http://pnnonline.org/jobs/index.asp
Question From M.B.:
Would any of the panelists have any information or insights to offer regarding employment with the Fulbright Program or any of the foundations with which it is associated, or with the Fulbright Association? Would one apply for a job through the Department of State to work with the Fulbright program? And, regarding the Fulbright Association, do any of you know any of the directors on the Board of the Association? As a former recipient of a grant and participant in regional interview committees and informational sessions, I am interested in learning more about the functioning of both organizations. Both the Association and the Program have informative websites, but if anyone has any inside information, that would be welcome.
Employment Opportunities at the NEH
Comment From T.M.:
I would love to work someplace such as the NEH, and I'm sure descriptions of the NEH atmosphere have at least some other humanists terribly envious. But I'm sure that the NEH could not possibly absorb all the humanist refugees from the academic job market who are still hoping to use the skills, experience and knowledge gathered from their Ph.D. studies.
I once attended an informational talk about foundation work at the Foundation Center, and the various representatives of foundations almost without exception enthused about their work and workplaces. When asked about numbers of vacancies, and frequency of staff turnover, the various representatives were not promising; they painted a picture of places where people are so comfortable that they never leave, and consequently a job market with few opportunities to get inside seemed even more inaccessible. In fact, the picture painted to the outsider was so bleak about this as a prospective job market that I wondered why they were bothering to have the session in the first place. It was as if they were sending a contradictory message, "If you are a person with particular inclinations, skills and experience, this could be a wonderful profession; but you can pretty much forget about breaking in."
Response From Maggie Keenan:
As for the complacency issue of foundation folks not leaving their jobs, therefore fewer openings, and chances being bleak to get a job.... we live in a mobile society... if you check out the chronicle of philanthropy, council of foundations, and regional associations of grant makers web sites... there are always openings. Heck... my thought when i graduated in 95 was that since the mandatory retirement age of 70 for profs. was no longer.... they would have to die before leaving academe and then jobs would be fewer to come by... but, there seems to positions open.
Response From Beth Patrinicola Stewart:
NEH has around 160 employees, so we are a very small agency by federal government standards. We do have openings every year, though, so if you are interested in the NEH, you can go to our web site (www.neh.gov), click on "News" and look under the employment opportunities section. You may also wish to look at openings at our "sister" agency, the NEA, or the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Positions in all of these agencies are similar.
Response From Suzanne McMurphy:
As for the turnover, it is true that there are few openings at any one time--as there are often fewer opportunities as you move up the management line, and there are many incentives to stay. On the other hand, if you have a particular area of interest and a position opens up in that area--you don't have to know someone to get in.
I think the trick is to monitor the openings--do an informational interview with several officers in different grantmaking areas, as someone suggested, so that you get a feel for the types of work they are doing--and what may be coming up in the future (and the expertise that they might be looking for). And get a good feeling for the organization and if you would be satisfied with a lower position just to use it as a stepping stone somewhere else--once you are at a foundation there is a fairly good peer network. I would think hard about that, however, before you take a position too much lower than your qualifications--because you could be stuck there given the lack of movement within the foundations.
Response From David Weinstein:
Good points and questions. I can talk a little about the NEH program officer positions here. There was a time (pre-1995) when the agency had a bigger budget and it was a little easier to get a foot in the door and work your way up through the NEH ranks. In the last two years, by my "unofficial" count, the NEH has hired five new program officers, including me. We all "broke in" by answering advertisements and applying for jobs. As far as I know, none of the five recent hires had any previous experience working at the agency. Three of us earned our Ph.D.'s within a few years of being hired and were teaching full-time at colleges or universities when we applied to the NEH. The fourth recent hire is working on her dissertation and has strong university administration experience. The fifth has a master's degree and lots of relevant professional experience. So the NEH has hired two or three new program officers a year for the last couple of years. As your e-mail suggests, people tend to like working here, and they remain at their jobs for a long time. When program officer positions open up, the search is competitive: probably analogous to a good tenure track position. That's the bad news. The good news is that if you are interested in public arts or humanities work, the NEH is one of many government organizations out there. Every state has a humanities council ( http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/statecouncils.html ), as do many counties and cities. These organizations support local humanities programming. They hire people with advanced degrees in the arts and humanities.
Finding and Applying to Government Jobs
Question From M.H.:
Thank you (and the other speakers) for your very interesting introduction. I'd like to take you up on your kind offer to discuss "how one negotiates the complicated federal job search and application processes." I've looked at the U.S. government jobs web site in the past, and found it at best confusing, at worst thoroughly intimidating. I'd love to know more about how you found this job and how you apply for such jobs.
To introduce myself briefly, I'm a current graduate student in American religious history at ****, hoping to complete my dissertation in the next year or so.
Answer From David Weinstein:
The federal jobs site that Beth [Stewart] mentioned in her e-mail (www.usajobs.opm.gov) is an excellent source if you're looking for a federal job. I found my current position at the NEH through an advertisement in the Chronicle of Higher Education. My job was also listed in a couple of professional broadcasting journals and listservs. In short, NEH divisions advertise their jobs through relevant academic and professional journals, associations, and listservs, including H-Net. As an aside, even if you are looking for a job outside of academe, I think that the Chronicle and professional journals/associations are worthwhile investments.
Federal jobs tend to spell out, in great detail, job qualifications and expectations. Usually, these criteria are numbered in order of their importance. I did not submit a separate, federal resume to the NEH, but I reformatted my c.v. to match the requirements listed when I applied. For example, the first criterion (after an advanced degree) asked for scholarly publications and presentations, so I listed my publications first on the c.v. This made the c.v easier to read and evaluate. When you apply for a federal job, your resume usually goes to a personnel office before it reaches the office in which you will (hopefully) work, so you want to make it easy for the personnel office to recognize that you are qualified for the position. Friends who have applied for jobs in other agencies also tell me that it is important to follow all the rules, and submit all materials requested on time, when you apply for a federal job.
As with any job, you can always try to contact the office that is listing the job, and/or the personnel office, and find out a little bit more about what the job entails. In fact, an agency's personnel office will frequently have a job announcement available that is more detailed than the one appearing in a classified advertisement. Still, the wording in the federal job announcements can be a little bit confusing. For example, my job was listed as "humanities administrator," rather than "program officer," even though the latter title is more widely accepted, I think. A conversation with a person can cut through this terminology.
I would guess that the majority of the program officers at the NEH hold Ph.D.'s, but not all of us do. In fact, a couple of program officers who have served as mentors to me do not hold Ph.D.'s.
The foundation officers on the list could probably give you better information on foundations than I can, but a starting point might be the Web sites for the Foundation Center ( http://fdncenter.org/ ) and the Grantsmanship Center ( http://www.tgci.com ). We send applicants working on grants to these sites. You may also check out the Chronicle of Philanthropy ( http://philanthropy.com/ ).
Answer From E.M.:
Just a word of caution-- when possible, use the same "keywords" listed in a federal job ad in your application/resume/cv. Often the applicants are first scanned by minimum wage HR assistants/mail room clerks or computers to make sure basic qualifications are met. I used to live in the Washington DC metro area which has a glut of PhDs applying for jobs for which they are overqualified. I personally know several people who did not get interviews and when they inquired why they were told that they did not meet the education requirement. In every case, the applicant had listed BA and PhD, while the job required an MA. The person/computer screening applications was just searching for the letters "M" and "A" and therefore disqualified the PhDs!
Answer From Beth Patrinicola Stewart:
M.H. asked how I found my job, how I applied, and the pros and cons of government work. I learned of my job through a contact I had at my agency; I let him know I was looking for non-academic work, and he told me about the opening. In the end, though, it was a position listed on www.usajobs.opm.gov, just like almost any other government position. D.W. and E.M.'s comments are quite true about applying for a federal job: read the announcement very, very closely, and be sure to include in your application materials the keywords you may notice in the announcement ("evaluate," "analyze," etc.). Most job announcements will include a list of specific qualifications--quality ranking factors, or something like that--and you will need to respond in turn to each qualification they mention. It's very important to respond to each qualification independently; in other words, if you must repeat yourself, do so. D.W. is also right to mention that deadlines are not lenient or flexible. Another issue that is significant when applying for a federal job is the so-called GS level of the position (in general, jobs are rated as GS-1 through GS-15, with 15 as the highest). Be certain you are not applying for a job with a lower rating than you wish to have, because the many regulations agencies must follow for promotion require you to remain at a particular GS-level for at least one year before being promoted to the next higher level. If you are hired at too low a level, it could take years for promotions to get you where you wish to be--not to mention the stigma of perhaps doing work for which you are overqualified. From what I have seen, a person with a Ph.D. is hired as a GS-11 or higher.
Presidential Management Internship (PMI) Program
Comment From D.W.:
For Ph.D.s interested in government jobs, a particularly good way to break in is the Presidential Management Internship Program (www.opm.pmi.gov). Although not perfect, it is widely considered the best way to get *good* government jobs, and PMI's typically have a better career trajectory and more control over the jobs they accept than people who enter govt. service in other ways. It is open to all M.A.s and Ph.D.s from any field of study.
PMI's are two-year appointments with a high probability of conversion to permanent positions. The process is modeled on the State Dept.'s Foreign Service exam, so it is competitive and "prestigious," but I think Ph.D.s are very well-placed to succeed. For someone with a Humanities background, especially, getting a PMI might be easier than competing for jobs with very specific skills requirements.
There are drawbacks (you must put in a year at GS9 paygrade - about 35,000, before moving up to a GS11), and although this is really a job some people struggle with the word "intern." My sense, though, is that increasing numbers of Ph.D.s are doing it.
I finished my degree last year and took a PMI position with the branch of the INS that handles political asylum and refugee processing. The job is very interesting and, in general, working for the govt. is more satisfying that I had expected. Many of the skills typically acquired during a Ph.D. program are highly valued, especially computer skills, since much of the govt. is essentially computer illiterate.
There is also a similar program for those interested in working specifically for USAID.
Response From K.G.:
I tried the URL - actually its
http://www.pmi.opm.gov/
Question From A.F.:
Is it true that the PMI program is only open to *current* Ph.D. students, and not to those who have recently graduated?
Answer From D.W.:
The PMI program is only open to "recent graduates." You must finish your degree before starting your position and I believe that you must have completed your degree in the year preceding your becoming a finalist. Consult the website (thanks for the earlier correction!)to be absolutely certain.
Question From P.B.:
Is the PMI program only open to those folks who can move to the East Coast? I won't be able to move from Santa Barbara when I finish my degree next summer.
Answer From D.W.:
No. PMI's can be stationed wherever there is federal government, but finding a federal job in the SB area would probably be difficult.
Once PMI's are chose as finalists they still have to get a specific job. The more flexible you are about location, the choosier you can be about the agency you work for, and what sort of work you will do for them. Of course, that often means going to DC. But some agencies have offices everywhere, and if location is more important to you than a specific position, you might be able to swing it.
Question From D.WA.:
This message is for D.W. of the PMI program. This is a program that my career center director recommended I apply for, so I got the head of my department to nominate me and I am just about to send in the application. I am very excited at the possibility of doing it. I have a few questions. I am ABD in religion at ****, specializing in Eastern Christianity, and I would like to do something along the lines of working for conflict resolution in this area of the globe. Is this a possibility? Also, the requirements state that one must "finish" all requirements for the Ph.D. Does that mean I must finish the final drafts of the dissertation and get it defended, and be ready to go to Washington Ph.D. hand? Any manueverability in this department?
Answer From M.BR.:
In order to apply for the PMI program (for positions starting next summer/fall) you must receive your master's degree or PhD between Sept. 1, 2001 and August 31, 2002. They are quite strict about this (so yes, you have to defend). You can also only apply for the PMI program once--so if you apply this year (deadline is Oct. 31) but don't finish the PhD you can't apply again next year.
If you go to the interns section of the PMI website at: http://www.pmi.opm.gov/jsearch.asp you can download the handbook of projected positions for this past year and get a sense of what kinds of jobs are typically available.
Breaking into Foundation Work Question From T.M.:
For all the panelists:
Perhaps this question was answered before I'm asking it, but I hope you won't mind answering it again.
Do you suggest taking any available position with your targeted foundation for the sake of getting a foot in the door, and learning its inner workings? For example, if the only vacancies for awhile are strictly administrative or technical, would taking such a position necessarily condemn one to a lifetime on an administrative or technical track in the organization?
Answer From Maggie Keenan:
I am not inclined to think that simply because you begin a career doing a particular job means a pigeon hole and that no other doors will open. However, if I had to give advice on the job hunt, do not settle for any job just to get a foot in the door. If you were to stand on the corner with the notion that you would ask 100 people who passed by to give you a dollar, some would ignore you and continue walking, some would give you change, and then a few would give you a dollar. The other scenario I tend to use (please not to be take any way other than understanding the point) is a guy standing on a corner and asking 100 women who passed by for a kiss on the cheek. Perhaps most wouldn't, but a few would... my point is stay on course for what it is you want, keep asking and plugging away.... you'll eventually make it happen.
Answer From Beth Patrinicola Stewart:
I must agree that it is not wise to take any position available to get a "foot in the door" at NEH. Though I have heard of people ascribing to this philosophy with the federal government in general, at NEH it is very unusual to see someone promoted from a more clerical or technical position to one that would involve actual humanities content (such as a Program Officer position, or even a Specialist position). The jobs are structured so that they require very different skill sets, and work on one job will not prepare you to apply competitively for another. In fact, your clerical work may be a liability. Another reason this philosophy does not translate well is the limitation I mentioned before on promotions, which is called the "time-in-grade" requirement. Before rising in the ranks, you must work at the grade into which you were hired for at least one year.
Answer From Suzanne McMurphy:
I can only speak for my experience at the Trusts--so there may be different views on this. First about promotions--it is very rare for someone to be promoted here, although it has happened in the past. Most of the movement is between the Associate level and the Officer level (Associates support the officers in their work--they often have master's degrees and expertise in a particular area). Usually when someone is hired here it is made clear that this is the position in which they will stay. So just getting your foot in the door might not be satisfying if you are in a position that doesn't provide you with enough of a challenge--especially if there is little hope for movement.
Answer From David Weinstein:
As an aside, some local and state councils also offer fellowships for research, writing, public programs, and artistic endeavors. Depending on what you are working on, you may want to look into applying for a grant.
Question From A.R.:
Thank you for all the tips. They are extremely useful and relevant. I am a 2nd year PHD in Communication, I am a quantitative person and I have worked on big school grants (data analysis, survey design, program evaluation). However, I have little work experience outside the academe (I have been an instructor in a **** University for two years). I am considering working in the non profit sector. 1)Given my lack of experience in working in foundations, is possible to get a job in this field? 2)Should I start by doing an internship? I see that many of the people you talk about have remarkable hands-on experience in the field, even if they haven't got their degree yet. What would be my chances as a person with lots of skills but no work experience in this area? 3) Also, I am not an American citizen. What kind of foundations would be more likely to be interested in hiring non American citizens?
Question From M.B.:
Regarding T.M.'s question about taking a clerical or technical job in order to get a foot in the door, and the responses, how much mobility is there between Program Associate and Officer at the Pew? Is Associate considered a stepping stone for Officer, and, would you (or others) say that goes for other foundations as well? Answer From A.T.:
I suggest that perhaps in smaller non-government foundations taking a secretarial type job is an excellent way to get your feet in the door. When they see what you can do, there is a chance they will give you more challenging work. Granted, in my case there was a lot of luck involved and I'm not sure if I'm qualified to say too much about foundation work as I have only been working at the Kettering Foundation, in Dayton Ohio, for less than two months. I am pursuing my Ph.D in American history(focus on antebellum/South) and came here quite accidentally after moving to Ohio for personal reasons. I needed a job right away so I signed up with a temp agency(from a recommendation on this listserv!!!) and within four days they placed me at the foundation for a data entry project. I met the president of the foundation that day, and by my second day I was working on editing a manuscript and checking historical facts for a book that just happened to be in my field. I am now working part time as a research assistant with attractive pay, and a good chance for continuing work. I have joined the Archives committee and am making every effort to learn more about the foundation. I have experience working in archives and love research on all topics, and am trying to bring that experience and enthusiasm to a completely new environment. So far, I have conducted research on public schools, public engagement and currently the history/politics/culture of the 1970s. One of my biggest frustrations with working on the dissertation is focusing on one topic to the point of feeling isolated, and I am thrilled to be researching something else and have a variety of activities during the day.
Answer From Richard Bennett:
I just wanted to second what A.T. said about getting a foot in the door. I know that some organizations have fairly fixed hierarchies and career tracks and it may not be possible to go from the temp/clerical type position into more challenging roles, but often getting some kind of experience within a particular kind of organization can give both insight and experience that can be really valuable.
Perhaps this might be the difference between someone who is in the exploratory stage of their career search--perhaps still working on their dissertation and interested in broadening their own experience (not to mention earning some money)--and someone who is mapping out a career. I have heard variations of A.T.'s story from many people and for one thing it can provide a huge confidence boost.
When thinking of a career progression, though, as Suzanne [McMurphy] has suggested, one should bear in mind the kind of experience that will open up opportunities going forward. If a position does not offer an opportunity to build on skills and develop new ones, then it is probably not a good "career move". If, on the other hand, the position offers an array of new possibilities and experience, not to mention the opportunity for growth within an organization, then it will likely be a good move, both because the work will be interesting and challenging, and the new experiences will be valuable going forward.
Question From A.RO.:
Given what some of our speakers are saying about the challenges moving up within the hierarchy of a foundation, do people resolve this problem of promotion by moving from one foundation to another? In other words, would experience as a program associate in one foundation (and the opportunity to develop management skills) be seen as good preparation for a program officer/director position in another organization? (And, I suppose, would people move from a program director position into higher management at a yet another foundation?)
Hiring Process Question From L.G.:
This is a question for Beth [Stewart] and Richard [Bennett] that takes off from an earlier question on applying to federal agencies. I am finishing up a Ph.D. in Design History in D.C. and am interested in finding a job in this area. I am particularly drawn to the intellectual climate and sense of community Beth described at the NEH. However, one of the problems I've run into during job searches is what Beth so aptly described as the "complicated federal job search and application processes" of federal agencies--specifically the time of the process. The review process for each position seems to take six months or more, time many people don't have: my fiancé applied for a position at a federal agency that he really liked but, by the time he had been informed that he had made the first round cut (at least six months), he had already accepted a position elsewhere. Could you talk more about the hiring process at federal agencies, how it works, why it takes so long, and the best ways to navigate it?
Answer From Beth Patrinicola Stewart:
L.G. asked, why does the hiring process take so long? It's a very, very important question. Agencies seem to recognize that the process takes too long, but regulations and procedures are so complex that they cannot solve the problem. In my agency, a job opening remains open from 2 - 4 weeks on average. After that time, applications are reviewed by human resources staff members; they check for eligibility and completeness, and then rank the applicants and remove from the pool applicants they deem ineligible. This process seems to take a couple of weeks. Then, a panel of current staff members is assembled to review and rank the applicants; this process, again, takes a week or two. Then lists of the most qualified candidates are forwarded to the hiring supervisor, who may then call people for interviews. That's a simplified explanation, but I am not a supervisor and do not know the details of each step in the process. I know that it took about two and a half months for me to receive a job offer after submitting an application.
Question From A.C.:
If receiving notification regarding one's application for a federal job may take months, would it be appropriate to call the dept/agency to ask the status of one's application? And if so, how long should one wait? How does one go about doing so?
Answer From Beth Patrinicola Stewart:
For A.C., who asked about determining the status of a federal job application: I am sorry to say that human resources staff members will be able to tell you very, very little about the status of your application while applications are being reviewed. I remember that when I was applying for my job, I called our human resources office twice in frustration (two months had passed, my temporary job was ending, and I was trying to plan a move from Michigan to Maryland with no guaranteed job on the other end!) and they could only tell me that my application had been received and that no one had been hired. Now if you happen to somehow make contact with the supervisor making the hiring decision, he or she may be able to tell you a bit more--whether the lists have been sent to the supervisor, whether they are interviewing, etc.--then again, that person may not tell you anything, either. I think that three months is a reasonable amount of time to wait to hear from my agency; other agencies will be different.
Masters-level Employment
Question From B.F.:
I'd like to know (from any and all of you) what role masters-level people with program experience have in your foundations/agencies. Are all of the interesting/stimulating jobs in these venues only for folks with PhDs?
Answer From Richard Bennett:
On the question of Masters degrees and PhDs, I would say that things vary dramatically. If you want to work in an arena where most people have doctorates, then a PhD can be seen as a badge of credibility, but there are many highly successful people even in those fields who do not have the PhD. I would not see the potential benefit of the credential as a *reason* to pursue a PhD. It may be an ancillary benefit.
With those equivocal responses . . .
Answer From Suzanne McMurphy:
As for hiring people with a masters versus a Ph.D. at Pew we have a mix of both. Most officers here have at least a master's degree and experience in the substantive area of grantmaking in which they will be working. For example, if you were to apply for a position in the public health area--having experience either through working in pubic health or having conducted research in that area would be as important as your education credentials.
We mostly hire Ph.D.'s to conduct our evaluations as the projects tend to require a substantial research background, but again, with having experience in a particular area would weigh as heavily as having Ph.D. Usually our consultants work in teams and quite often the majority of the team has master's level training with the lead evaluator having a Ph.D.
Answer From Beth Patrinicola Stewart:
B.F. asked about the role of people with master's degrees in foundations/government agencies, and as I left graduate school after completing an M.A., I can speak on that point. As David [Weinstein] mentioned, most NEH Program Officers do have a Ph.D., though there are some who have an M.A. combined with field experience. For example, in our Division, which specializes in programs for the general public, we have Program Officers with an M.A. degree plus experience in the film world or the museum world. My position as a Program Specialist requires either an M.A. degree or a B.A. plus experience, so there are quite a few Specialists with M.A. degrees. You should know, though, that my experience with a government agency has underscored the rigidity of the hierarchy here; it is unfortunate that few if any Specialists are able to be promoted to Officers despite years of experience here. If your intention is to become a Program Officer, then I would not advise being hired into a different position and then hoping for promotion. It rarely happens.
Evaluation and Assessment Work
Question From M.A.:
My question is primarily for Suzanne [McMurphy] and Richard [Bennett}. I am currently an ABD student in educational psychology and I am interested in evaluation and assessment. I am currently employed at an Institute tied to the University, in the evaluation and assessment department, and I work on different educational projects. I would like to continue this type of work after finishing my dissertation. Do you have people within your foundations doing this type of work(research and evaluation specialist, or similar title)?
Suzanne, from your description it seems you do something along these lines although your projects are not in education. I will be searching for a job soon, any recommendations on how to go about this and how to market myself?
Answer From Beth Patrinicola Stewart:
Evaluation is a key concern in many government agencies, as well. At the NEH, our Office of Strategic Planning focuses on evaluating and analyzing our grant programs; I am certain that other agencies also have offices devoted to evaluation. During your job search, you may wish to look at openings at federal agencies listed at www.usajobs.opm.gov.
Answer From Richard Bennett:
First, as far as evaluation is concerned, it is extremely important to virtually everything that is done with anyone else's money. In other words, if you want to raise money on the basis of a track record, it is important to be able to show some credible evaluation of that record. (I'm sure this is not new to you, M.A.) Consequently, at some time, everyone involved in establishing and running programs aimed at effecting change at some point needs the expertise and services of people who can design and carry out these evaluations. I guess that's the good news, suggesting that there is a high demand for you and your training. At Woodrow Wilson we do not have specialist in house evaluators, but we always try to be conscious of the need to perform evaluations, and this sometimes entails hiring external evaluators. If there is a bad news corollary, perhaps it is in the inherent difficulty in producing solid and convincing means of evaluating many kinds of programs.
Question From E.G.:
I'd like to chime in with my usual question about the opportunities to do evaluation work with foundations and also to get an opinion on a remark made by a friend of mine who is some sort of honcho with a major foundation in NYC.
First on the evaluation front. One of our speakers mentioned that evaluation work is usually done by outside consultants, typically faculty people with expertise in a program area. I am interested in learning whether or not this is always the case. Faculty may be able to comment on a program's logic model but I am specifically interested in empirical evaluation-- interviews, audits, surveys, etc. I have a decent background doing this but (obviously) am not in an academic setting. Do foundation use people with these skills? Do you work with consulting organizations for this kind of thing? What would be the best way to approach foundations to do this?
Consulting
Question From E.G.:
Regarding my friend's remark. She suggested that anyone with a PhD could make a decent living consulting to foundations. Comments?
Answer From Suzanne McMurphy:
As for making a living as a consultant that someone else asked earlier, that is a tough question. I don't see that here--if we find a good consultant we will often use them again, but only if their expertise fits what we need them to do. I have two very excellent research firms working for me right now, but if my upcoming research needs don't fit what they do--I will look for other consultants instead of going back to them. I will pass their names along to colleagues at other foundations as a recommendation, so in that sense if you develop a good reputation you may be able to support yourself with foundation money. There may be other foundations, however, that keep their consultants on more long-term contracts so don't take my comments as true for everyone.
University Position/Ph.D. as Prerequisite
Question From M.HE.:
I have noticed that in some of your initial postings, two or three of you mentioned not only your Ph.D. but that you held jobs at the assistant professor level before adjusting your careers. My question, as an ABD student, is whether or not you feel that a university position is necessary in and of itself, or does it fall under the category of "other experience?" Does the university post carry any special prestige?
Or stigma?
Answer From Suzanne McMurphy:
To answer your question on Ph.D. and academic positions--I do think the Ph.D. gives some additional weight as an indication of further knowledge in an area, but I don't think having held an academic position gives much additional credibility. Several of my colleagues have held academic positions and many have not--instead they have more "real-world experience". I don't think my prior faculty positions had any weight in my being hired in my position--I think it was much more to do with experience outside of academia.
As for qualitative social science degrees as a background--I actually think that the majority of people have that type of educational background here. The range is really wide regarding the types of degrees--for example there are several colleagues here with Ph.D.'s in the sociology of religion, communication, art history, political science, etc. In fact if anything, I see fewer quantitative backgrounds since we don't tend to do in-house research, but hire it out.
My advice would be--if you see a position that looks interesting to you and you aren't sure if you are qualified, apply anyway. After talking with some of my friends across other foundations about their job expectations at the program officer level, it really seems to vary. The only common thread I heard was that the candidate had to have some experience in the particular substantive area that the grantmaking was in--experience as in "real world" such as the director of a non-profit as one person asked, to experience as having conducted research in that particular area.
So I would say give it a shot if the job looks interesting to you.
Firstly, thank you so much for all of your great comments and information this week. It's been a wonderful discussion, even if I have been just lurking around as an observer/reader.
Secondly, my question. No one else has brought this up yet, but I'm sure it's on all of our minds -- what is the salary range like for your position? In general, do foundations tend to pay fairly well (i.e. like corporate administrative work) or not-so-well (i.e. like adjunct professorships)?
Answer From David Weinstein:
Pay for a program officer in the federal government fluctuates from one agency to another, and even within particular agencies, based on how the agency defines the position and responsibilities. In addition, pay varies depending upon an individual's experience and seniority. That said, here are some ballpark figures:
Throughout the government, most "senior program officers" work at a minimum GS-12 grade ($48,622-$62,686). Within each grade, there are numerous "steps," thus the fairly broad range. Maximum is G-15 ($79,710-$106,623). You can find salaries at the OPM Web site: http://www.opm.gov/oca/01tables/GSannual/html/2001gs.htm
Answer Suzanne McMurphy:
As for salary--it is significantly higher than a faculty member's--I'd say more than double what beginning faculty would make. And the benefits are really good. We also get to meet a lot of interesting people and see our grantees doing a lot of interesting work. So there are some real intangible benefits as well.
Pros and Cons of Foundation Work
Question From M.H.:
If possible, [what are] your thoughts on the pros and cons of working for the federal government.
Answer From David Weinstein:
Good question about advantages and disadvantages of working for the government. I could go on for pages about this, but the short answer is that working at the NEH is similar in many respects to working at a 9-5 job in any large company or institution, including many colleges and universities. I should add that I feel support the NEH's work, and that belief in the NEH's mission is one of the reasons why I enjoy my job and find it meaningful. It may sound obvious, but if you want to work for the government, you should be the type of person who likes working with the public.
Answer From Beth Patrinicola Stewart:
Pros and cons of government work.... On the positive side, as D.W. says I believe in the mission of my agency, and that my work is contributing to a greater purpose. I think that "feel-good" component is important to most people who have pursued advanced humanities degrees. There is no financial bottom-line driving our work and mission. To be very practical, the jobs also seem to be more stable, particularly during times of financial unrest. The primary negative of government work, in my opinion, is the inflexibility of job positions. Rarely will your particular strengths lead to a re-definition of your job duties, and it has seemed to me that people are hired to fit a position more than, say, a person is hired for their strengths and the way those strengths may help an agency.
Question From A.RO.:
There's been a lot of discussion about the overall structure of work in foundations, but I'd be interested in hearing a bit more about the day to day experiences of the guest speakers. What do you find most satisfying, most challenging, or even most frustrating about your work?
Answer From David Weinstein:
Here is a day in the life a humble government program officer: My work varies depending on where we are in the grants cycle. Our biggest deadline is February 1, though we have a couple of important smaller deadlines September 11 and November 1. In general, I spend a lot of time on the phone, talking to radio and TV producers about their projects. Some of these people will already have received a grant, others are potential applicants. I also read preliminary drafts of applications most days. We have a couple of meetings among the media program officers and staff each week, during which we discuss broader policy issues. A program officer will sometimes draft a report or policy recommendation for the division based upon these discussions.
Starting next week, I will be on the phone to recruit potential panelists and reviewers (scholars and filmmakers) who will advise us on the grant applications that are due November 1. After a deadline, much of our time is devoted to the review of applications: reading applications ourselves and making sure that the "peer reviewers" have the information that they need to advise us. I also attend a fair number of conferences, where I present workshops and answer questions on our grants programs. November 8-11, for example, I will be at the American Studies Association meeting in Washington. I'm scheduled to attend the National Association of Latino Independent Producers' conference in La Jolla, California December 6-9.
After the Feb. 1 deadline, our days are consumed reading applications and writing reports and summaries of these applications. We continue to work with the applications through July, when the NEH makes its official decision on the grants. We then sent out letters explaining our decision along with copies of the peer evaluations to all applicants. If an applicant has received a grant, there is additional paperwork required to monitor the grant. In general, the federal government generates a lot of paper. Sometimes it feels a bit surreal, writing all the letters and filling out all the forms, but there is a method to our madness. Most of the paperwork serves an important function. Please don't ask me to elaborate. I'll have to slip into government jargon that could harm us all (or put us all to sleep at our keyboards).
Answer From Richard Bennett:
I will try to speak briefly to questions of daily work. Obviously, there are major differences between grant-making organizations and others. In the case of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, there are certainly programs that are driven by the kinds of application deadlines that David described. Here at WWNFF, these would include all the fellowship programs, such as the Charlotte Newcombe Fellowships, Women's Studies Fellowships, Mellon Fellowships, Woodrow Wilson Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities, etc. These programs all have predictable annual cycles. Other programs will not have the same annual cycle.
It is hard for me to give a "typical" day or week, but my work entails frequent meetings and conferences. The meetings may be range from 2-3 people to 25-30 people. Sometimes, we will be the ones organizing and running them, at other times I will attend them either as a panelist or as a regular conference attendee. Those meetings that we organize will usually be designed to advance a concrete goal of our work--perhaps focused on conceptualizing or refining a planned publication, or planning a series of activities with partnering institutions. Because we work with academics, often we must schedule meetings for weekends, which can certainly eat into leisure time.
Throughout the cycle of work, writing remains important, from the conceptualization of a grant application to the continually changing description of a project for the web or for a printed document.
I will also spend a fair amount of my time on the phone or in email exchanges with colleagues that I work with closely or others who might be working in areas of potential cooperation or collaboration. For me, the most rewarding aspect of my work is probably the many opportunities to meet people doing interesting work in and around education. The most challenging is perhaps convincing myself that the work is effective, despite the enormous scale of some of the problems.
Answer From Suzanne McMurphy:
The description Richard [Bennett] gave is very similar to what a program officer would do here at Pew also. Much of their daily work depends upon where they are in the cycle of developing documents for the board--if they have a grant to be reviewed by the board, they will focus much of their time on getting those documents ready. Otherwise, the meetings and conferences Richard describes are very similar. As a Planning and Evaluation officer, we don't do any grantmaking, so my day consists of many meetings with internal staff and external consultants, talking on the phone with grantees or consultants, doing background research on a particular issue related to the program areas I work with, designing evaluations, hunting for consultants to do the evaluation and writing final reports. My days range from very tedious and filled with too many meetings, to very satisfying--doing research just as I did as a faculty member designing research projects.
Culture Outside Academe
Question From M.HE.:
I've noticed some of you have talked about "culture" with regards to the mission of your particular agency/foundation. Since I'm ABD in anthropology/linguistics, I was initially excited to think of doing anthropology outside of the university setting. On further reflection I realized that perhaps I'm using a different definition of culture, more along the lines of Arnold's "best that has been thought and said." So my second question is do you see many qualitative social science Ph.Ds (especially--and somewhat selfishly--cultural anthropology) with jobs in your agencies/foundations?
Balance Between Intellectual Life and Work
Question From S.B.:
A.RO.'s recent question is exactly what I've been unable to find the words to ask all week. I'd like to add an amendment by asking, specifically, how/whether the various speakers have managed to strike a balance between their intellectual interests and their professional lives. I'm a first-year PhD student in English; I returned to the academy because I found my life as a Program Director and overall fax machine supplicant at a small non-profit very unsatisfying. However, now that I'm here in the university again, I feel thwarted and frustrated by the self-perpetuating study and the lack of real-world concern! I feel a little like I'm searching for a nonexistent perfect job, in which reading, writing, and intellectual pursuits can be funneled into lively and socially active work (teaching hasn't proven adequate, at least so far, for addressing this concern).
Could any of the speakers or other participants comment on how working for foundations may/may not resolve this dilemma? Is it simply a trade-off one is forced to make, or are there structures that do provide that critical balance?
Answer From David Weinstein:
Despite the bureaucratic nature of government work, I continue to grow intellectually on the job. I work with lots of creative filmmakers and radio producers. We can't take credit for their ideas or successes, but I still feel energized when I hear about a good project and brainstorm a bit with a producer. Good grant applications are fun to read. They incorporate recent historical scholarship. I also continue to read scholarly books outside of the office. I spend far too many evenings and weekends researching and writing my own book (under contract to Temple UP)on the history of television in the 1940s and 1950s. Without the pressure to finish the dissertation or "publish or perish," my research feels like a hobby. It is nice. A sympathetic wife also helps. I been working on the book for about two years and I've been making steady progress. The NEH also has a couple of programs that give employees time off for independent study and development, though colleges and universities offer more opportunities for research time, with summer and winter vacations and the occasional sabbatical if you are lucky, than practically any non-academic employer that I know of.
Answer From Richard Bennett:
On the question of academic research and writing, my guess is that it is something generally viewed with sympathy in the various environments we have been discussing, but perhaps still something that one must carve out one's own time to pursue, unless, as Robert suggested, it has direct bearing on the work one is doing. I have found a very supportive atmosphere here at Woodrow Wilson, but practically I do not have the time in my work schedule to make room for personal academic research. Others have mentioned the benefit of being able to leave one's work at the office. This makes it possible (if still challenging) to use leisure time for academic work or other interests (bearing in mind what I said about weekend meetings).
Answer From Suzanne McMurphy:
As for doing my own research, as Richard [Bennett] said, unless it directly pertains to what we do here--I must do that on my own time. I am still the PI on two federally-funded grants which I brought with me when I started here--and I do that work on nights and weekends. It was not an option to have that as part of my contract.
Answer From Maggie Keenan:
First, the dilemma is with your expectation that the world outside of academe doesn't get it and that intellectual inquiry is only happening within the walls of the ivory tower. Don't expect institutions to "get" the "real world" or vice versa. I take it you mean the for-profit sector and the third sector. The sectors are very different and that is what is appealing and a good thing. I am not certain that you will find your pleasure work, or balance, necessarily at a foundation. However, it most definitely will depend on the type of foundation. Finding one that supports the area or field of interest which you are attracted to (ie. Eugenia Price Charitable Foundation in St. Simon's Island....small but nice) may be ideal. I am using this as an ex. in literature/eng. ... not sure what your area/field is? However, the pursuit of intellectual inquiry is our own responsibility and our day to day work may not always offer that, but if offers other aspects you enjoy. No matter where you go, be open to the idea that you could create the reading, writing, and research into your job, or if working for a nonprofit - write a grant to support a research endeavor related to you job or org. Perhaps, you may also want to think about advocacy organizations... many offer research with administrative responsibilities (nice balance there) Check out www.cof.org or Philanthropy Initiative). I used to share the same dilemma years ago which you are facing, but I have learned to let that go... as if I had to find that perfect job (out of academe) to provide those opportunities to me... well, I have learned is up to me to create that. I go in and out of research and reading and writing, months could go by or a year and I don't do it. At other times, I am overloaded with research ideas and find it hard to make the time (not a part of my job)... do it in the evening or weekends. But, when the weather is nice, I tend to go fishing instead.
A.RO., there are several issues you raise. First, it's clear and good for you for learning early that teaching is not your thing. Hence, don't consider seeking teaching opportunities.
Question From R.C.:
I have a question for all the participants about how one's own research is (dis)empowered when working at a foundation. Do foundations typically have structures like release time? If your own research & writing interests don't overlap with the mission of the foundation (i.e., you research access to higher education on the job, but are actually working on a mytho-logo-poetical account of thirties political poetry), is it something that a foundation would support with these structures, or do they prefer you to participate in foundation-y academic discussions?
Answer From Maggie Keenan:
Foundations and academe, in my experiences and personal opinion are NOT engaged in the same sort of discussions as you describe or see in the hallways of departments in institutions among grad. students, faculty and others. Once you leave academe, again in my personal opinion, those types of discussions become fewer and fewer (unless you work with other intellects). Foundation work (for those not research foundations) for the most part is very much administraitvium-like. Balance of programs, with evaluations, with fiduciary responsibilities (ie. investment policies), with management, with staff meetings, with site visits, etc.... Unless you have been at a foundation in an executive position for many years, self interest research or sabbaticals are not often granted. I have only read about 2 individuals (CEO) who after 15 plus years got a one year sabbatical. If you find the foundation that allows you to do your job and other things of your own interest--- hey let me know, I'd want to apply.
Response From R.C.:
Thanks to all the participants in our now completed discussion for responding to my question, even though the actual responses confirmed my suspicions. regardless, the working conditions that you describe seem very congenial despite what would still be a major drawback for me. it is curious to me that organizations set up to foster research by others _don't_ have such structures for their own employees.