Education Foundation Jobs
Program officers often have many ways to finding their careers in working at an educational foundation. To prepare, to get as much experience as you can in a given nonprofit field. For example try looking in the children's health fields or by working in the environment. "Program officers generally, foundations after a career in academia, public charities, or agencies. Foundations recruit because we have a deep knowledge and experience in a particular area," says Karen Stevenson, CEO the Louis Brandys Foundation in Chicago, which supports academic and scholarly research in the field.
One of the best ways to gain skills that are used to the greatest possible number of hats in the field that you expect to oversee the grants, and preferably have some experience outside the scope of the foundational program, said Michael Fleming, director of the Brian Hannet, Los Angeles, which supports social activism, especially the promotion of gays and lesbians. "I suggest to you that the most effective program I know officials came to their jobs with years of experience doing more than giving money," he says. "If you really want to give community-based organizations, nothing better to be prepared to work in the trenches of the same agencies today."
You should also add the nuts and bolts, non-profit management experience to his knowledge in an area of philanthropy, said Peter Johansson, a senior program officer at the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation in Tulsa, Okla., Which supports community philanthropy. "When I'm looking to add to our staff," Mr. Zemel said, "I look for people in one of two categories: people with a wealth of experience and knowledge in a specific field that the priority of a foundation, or people with extensive experience of fundraising nonprofit, direct service, management agencies and grants. "
Future training of officers of nonprofit foundations in management skills should include training in legal issues that apply to your area of specialty. "Knowing a little something about the training also helps," adds Mr. Zemel. "Volunteers provide hundreds of billions of dollars of time to nonprofit organizations, and the need to train and retrain the laity in the service, management and governance is never ending."
Finally, be aware that the management of care and consideration of proposals for projects that foundations are often hire consultants to do, says Mr. Zemel, and could not find that their interests are handled by a official program. "Technical assistance is what the staff and ancillary workers provide," says Mrs. Fitzpatrick. "The technical aspect of philanthropy is a lateral."
