"My work at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) this summer focused on researching key issue areas and creating on-ramp documents to be circulated internally and shared externally. I learned about best practices and trends in philanthropy, and I supported RPA in creating documents that highlighted RPA’s work in the field, which will be used to provide current and future clients with an overview of each issue area.

My work focused on evaluating featured RPA projects, philanthropic trends, key players, and recommendations for philanthropists in considering how to engage with philanthropy locally and at scale. My research was focused on education, arts and culture, and criminal justice reform. To critically approach each issue area, I drew upon my learnings from the Global Philanthropy course with Professor Berman. In this course, I learned about different frameworks in thinking about philanthropy, success, effectiveness, and responsibilities of nonprofits versus that of other industries. I learned about wicked and tame problems and the complications around untangling wicked problems. I also drew upon data analysis skills learned from the core courses to complete a funder portfolio overview and assessment on strategy of potential projects.

The biggest challenge I faced was chipping away at these on-ramp documents that did not exist within the RPA eco-system. For instance, the learning crisis in education is a massive issue. However, our goal was to give a brief overview in the education landscape while going in-depth enough to give a clear picture of the issues for funders to consider how to get involved. I feel very fortunate to have worked on this assignment, under the guidance of very knowledgeable experts in the field.

The opportunity to work on on-ramps was invaluable. I chose to intern at RPA because I wanted to learn best practices in philanthropy. RPA works at an enormous scale, and I was intrigued by the level of impact that RPA and its partners sought to address root issues and causes. Prior to CBS, I worked at a small and new nonprofit that worked on a local level. This experience was important because I had the opportunity to learn best practices from SMEs and had guidance and insight over my research. My goal and expectations for this internship were exceeded as I left with new insights, a piqued interest in philanthropy at scale, and new friends."