Category Archives: Administration

Sep 24 2012
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Administration, Patricia St. Onge

Hiring Foundation Staff With Complementary Work Styles

By Patricia St. Onge, Seven Generations Consulting and Coaching

I was pleased to be asked to share some thoughts about hiring staff in small foundations. I have served as interim director to more than a dozen organizations and foundations where I have facilitated the process of hiring new leadership. I would like to share a few tools I use when supporting the process of hiring.

The most important element of the search is to find a person who is the right fit for your foundation at its particular moment in history. I take board members and staff through a process of identifying the developmental stage at which they find themselves at their foundation. We then imagine where we want to be in the next three-to-five years and what kind of leadership we need to facilitate our growth as we imagine it. We consider both specific hard skills, such as knowledge about how to make Program Related Investments, and also personality and leadership characteristics. We use that information to write a job description.

To help ensure the best fit for a new employee, I use the medicine wheel, an indigenous model for determining complementary work styles. This provides insight into different working or leadership styles associated with each of the four directions – visionary, nurturer, warrior, or critical thinker. Continue reading →

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Jul 26 2012
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Administration, Rachel Miller

Sole Staffers: Embrace Opportunities to Connect

By Rachel Miller, ASF

The world of a sole staffer can be a strange place. In the words of Aladdin’s Genie: “Phenomenal cosmic powers! Itty bitty living space.”

Working on your own as a leader of a small foundation can be exhilarating and empowering as you exceed your own expectations for what you can accomplish. But it can also be overwhelming as you find limitations and realize how much you need coworkers. Sometimes, your dog just doesn’t have the answers you need.

For nearly five years, I was a sole staffer at for a nonprofit organization that led adult education programs in Washington, D.C. I felt so connected to my work and the community that I didn’t mind that my day never followed a traditional 9 to 5 model. I embraced the freedom as much as I embraced the comfy dress code. But mostly, I loved how self-reliant the position made me feel. Whatever the organization needed, I knew I could become. Continue reading →

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Jun 22 2012
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Administration, Linda Zimmerman

Learning New Tricks

By Linda Zimmerman, ASF

I still own a typewriter. I still use a calculator. The only thing I can do with my phone is talk into it. And I’ve held the same job for more than a dozen years. So by now you’ve figured out that I’m not a millennial or from Generation X! 

In the years that I’ve handled ASF’s membership, I’ve seen the resources I have to do my work change from a PC software program on my desk to a database I access through the Internet. When I began in 1997, I didn’t have an e-mail address, and an ASF website was still a dream.

I know from personal experience the changes that have taken place at ASF over the years. And so do many of ASF’s members.

Nearly 50% of ASF’s foundation members joined at least 10 years ago. And more than 60% of those who joined in 1995, ASF’s first year, are still members.

Although the ASF of 2012 is a far cry in some respects from the organization they joined then, it’s clear that they continue to find the relationship a valuable one. One reason may be that, although they’re doing the same work, the world around them has changed, and ASF has been changing with it.

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May 30 2012
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Administration

Giving Anonymously: A Personal Struggle

By an ASF member

Historically we have given anonymously in the communities where we live. We have done so because it is a value of ours, because we do not want people to know we have money, because we do not want to make some of our friends uncomfortable, because we feel vulnerable in a world where people with money can be taken advantage of, because we believe that one of the higher forms of giving is to give without being recognized, and because we are private and humble.

In this day and age, it is becoming harder to give anonymously. You can look up anyone’s 990 or 990-PF on the Internet. You can Google anyone and find out a bit of information. We give the organizations we work with a grant agreement and in it is a confidentiality clause. Try as we might, sometimes they slip up and our name winds up in their annual report or some other document and then out to the Internet and community it goes.

I know it doesn’t help that our family’s name is in the name of the foundation. We could change the name of the foundation, and in fact we are in discussions about that. One of the founders and board members is ambivalent about it. In one sentence he will say, ‘no I don’t care who knows and I like being known as a funder’ and then go ahead and agree to a name change.

I do feel an obligation to take his feelings into consideration. It was his money, after all, that started the foundation. How do I honor both wishes? Is it possible?

As for me, I am ambivalent. It is hard to lead us when I am of mixed feelings. I value giving anonymously, but I do know that the way we are currently operating is not allowing me to make the kind of difference I would like to in the community.

What are your thoughts? How do you handle these issues? Talk to me, please.

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May 24 2012
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Administration, Kathryn Petrillo-Smith

Foundation Salary and Benefits Data Prompts Conversation

By Kathryn Petrillo-Smith, ASF

Today ASF releases its 2012 Foundation Salary and Benefits Report. Every year, this is one of our most popular reports. Why? For a couple reasons: some obvious and some, perhaps, not so obvious.

First, the obvious. For foundations with few or no staff and/or $200 million or less in assets, it is the best source of readily available benchmarking data. With comparisons by asset size of <$1 million, $1-4.9 million, 5-9.9 million, 10-24.9 million, 25-49.4 million, and 50 million and up, the data is tailored for smaller foundations. Add in geographic breakouts and data at a range of percentiles, and a foundation leader can develop a compensation benchmark that is powerful and relevant.

Second, the not so obvious. The real power behind the data is the conversations the data can prompt between trustees and staff. Use this as an opportunity to discuss not just what benchmarks you have selected but how you came to select them. For example:

  • What are your foundation’s executive director’s responsibilities and priorities over the coming year?
  • Are they changing or continuing on a steady course?
  • Is he or she being asked to take on a new project or initiative?
  • Is your foundation’s grantmaking more complicated than the average foundation? 

Using the data as a starting point can be an effective way to begin what can be difficult and often very personal conversations. But, these conversations can also be incredibly powerful – helping everyone to align their expectations for the coming year and creating a shared understanding of desired outcomes. 

How does your foundation use salary and benefits data? What conversations has data helped you to start?

ASF’s Foundation Salary and Benefits Report is released each year in late spring. ASF members can download the report for free. Non-members can purchase the report as a supplement to the 2011 Foundation Operations and Management Report. The 2012 Foundation Salary and Benefits report was made possible, in part, by the support of U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management.

Kathryn Petrillo-Smith

Kathryn Petrillo-Smith is ASF’s Managing Director. In this role, Kathryn is a member of ASF’s senior leadership team and works to align ASF’s operations with its strategy. Kathryn oversees ASF’s Member Services, Membership, Marketing & Communications, and Operations teams and its financial management.

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May 17 2012
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Administration, Victoria Wasserman

What I Learned Interning At A Small Foundation

By Victoria Wasserman, Rita J. & Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation

This is the third in a three-part series chronicling one foundation’s experience with having an intern. The first post was written by the foundation’s Executive Director and the second by its Program Officer. This third post is by the foundation’s current Intern. We hope the series will inspire other foundations to follow suit.

For many college students and recent graduates, internships are no more than a resume filler or course requirement that usually leads to a dead end. My internship experience, however, was something much more fulfilling. The skills developed and lessons learned from the months I have spent interning at a small foundation are worth much more than three college credits or a weekly stipend; they are lessons that I will remember and skills that I will utilize throughout my professional career. Some of these lessons include:

The role and power of philanthropy:  Before I graduated, I thought I needed to look for jobs at big-name nonprofits or a government agency in order to have a hand in changing the world. I have come to understand and appreciate the oft-overlooked, behind-the-scenes power of philanthropy, particularly of the small foundation variety, and the domino effect of impact that even a small grant can have on an organization or community. More than that, I have developed a deeper knowledge of a somewhat opaque field in which few people get a behind-the-scenes look.

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May 03 2012
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Administration, Michael V. Paul

How We Made A Small Foundation Internship Work

By Michael V. Paul, Rita J. & Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation 

This is the second in a three-part series chronicling one foundation’s experience with having an intern. The first post was written by the foundation’s Executive Director. This second post is by the foundation’s Program Officer, and the third post will be by its current Intern. We hope the series will inspire other foundations to follow suit.

As one who is not far removed from the trials and tribulations of the modern day job search, I know how much an internship can help guide a jobseeker. I can attribute a nonprofit internship in college for guiding me to where I am today. Furthermore, as a Millennial at a small foundation, I yearn for the opportunity to develop professionally. For these reasons, and the many our Executive Director, Gali, explained in an earlier post, we decided to have an intern at our small foundation. Here’s how we did it.

First, we developed a framework to help navigate our intern search and key phases of the project. We determined our ideal candidate to be an undergraduate or recent graduate with: 

  • Little or no experience in the professional world, 
  • Potential for growth, and
  • Interest or curiosity in the nonprofit/philanthropic sector.

Along with these criteria, we hoped to find a person who would fit well in our office – someone with whom we could easily spend 8 hours each day.

Next, we drew up a job description to post on Idealist, a nonprofit job board. We considered the many tasks an intern might perform in our office and thought about how to translate them into a job post. We bunched these tasks into three areas: 

  • Project Tasks – Research current and potential granting areas, writing assignments, filing, and database projects. 
  • Learning Tasks – News research, trend and field analysis, resume/cover letter updating, and mock interviewing. 
  • Administrative Tasks – Management of day-to-day office systems. 

After whittling down our candidate pool to five, I conducted a series of interviews and ultimately selected a candidate who would be the best fit. 

Continue reading →

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Apr 19 2012
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Administration, Gali Cooks

Why We Started An Internship At Our Foundation

By Gali Cooks, Rita J. & Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation

This is the first in a three-part series chronicling one foundation’s experience with having an intern. The first post is written by the foundation’s Executive Director, the second by the Program Officer, and the third by the current Intern. We hope the series will inspire other foundations to follow suit.

Gali CooksI have always been a fan of internships. I had several internships in college and remember them fondly. They exposed me to the “real world” and had a profound impact on my professional direction.

So it was no surprise that about a year ago, when my Program Officer, Michael, and I started thinking of ways we could add value to our foundation, we thought about creating an internship. Continue reading →

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Apr 18 2012
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Administration, Lauren Kotkin

Throwing It All Away?

By Lauren Kotkin, ASF

My sister was born in the middle of a blizzard.

That is, my father flagged down a truck driver near their apartment in the NY suburbs to take them to the hospital—any hospital—because emergency services refused to pick them up. The driver drove them to the nearest hospital, and my sister was delivered by an unknown doctor.

The story is family lore.

Fast forward a few decades. My parents were schmoozing at a bar-mitzvah when my mother recognized a man in the crowd. She never forgets a name or a face. Sure enough, it was the doctor who delivered my sister. She said to him, “You probably don’t remember this, but…” and then introduced herself and thanked him with a smile. Continue reading →

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Mar 30 2012
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Administration, Katie Everett

Assessing Yourself From All Sides

By Katie Everett, The Lynch Foundation

Five years ago, I participated in an assessment called The Leadership Circle Profile.

Different from traditional competency-based approaches to assessment, it is a 360-degree assessment designed to accelerate your leadership and help you understand the relationship between how you habitually think and behave—and how all this impacts your current effectiveness as a leader.

Working as the executive director of a small foundation can be lonely and isolating. I found it very difficult to get authentic feedback from my grantees, and often it was difficult to engage the foundation’s trustees in meaningful performance reviews due to time constraints. In addition, having worked with this board for more than 10 years, both the philanthropy and my relationships have become very personal. All made the annual review process challenging.

When I found The Leadership Circle and learned that all my trustees could participate in an online survey, answering  more than 100 questions but taking less than 20 minutes of their time, I knew I had discovered something wonderful. Then I learned that all the answers were anonymous, meaning I could get my grantees to participate in a genuine process too.

Continue reading →

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