David Goldberg ’11Journal #1
As I begin my summer internship at the Robin Hood Foundation, I’m excited to apply what I’ve learned in my first year at Columbia Business School. I had worked at a nonprofit prior to enrolling at the School, but the Robin Hood Foundation isn’t just any nonprofit: it’s well known in the philanthropic world as being one of the most rigorous grant makers around, employing precise metrics to evaluate the potential of grants and the quality of the programs they fund. I can’t think of a better place for a social enterprise student to spend the summer.
I’m interning with the Jobs & Economic Security portfolio, which is responsible for programs to generate and increase income among people living in poverty, including ex-offenders, people recovering from substance abuse, and others. I’ve already met with my supervisors a number of times to discuss the projects I’ll be undertaking this summer in more detail. First, I will be evaluating the potential for collaboration with a CUNY campus to provide placement services for low-income students pursuing non-matriculated studies (primarily certificate programs) as well as to examine the broader issue of making grants to organizations that are nontraditional in the sense that they are not community-based. In this project, I will need to draw heavily on what I learned in one of Columbia’s flex-core classes — Strategy, Structure, and Incentives.
I will also undertake a more quantitative project, looking at how Robin Hood calculates the investment necessary to help someone find a job. More specifically, I will investigate whether Robin Hood may be underestimating costs due to beneficiaries who access the services of more than one grantee. If so, that means the cost per beneficiary increases, and that is important for the Foundation to know.
Obviously, I have a lot on my plate already, and it’s clear that I’m going to learn a great deal this summer.
Journal #2
I’m about halfway through my internship at the Robin Hood Foundation, and I’ve already learned a huge amount about working at a grant-making Foundation, program evaluation, and poverty in New York City.
So far, one of the most gratifying aspects of my job has been visiting different grantee organizations. Getting a chance to talk to the actual beneficiaries of Robin Hood’s grants has helped put into perspective just how important this work is. The experience has also helped me better understand the magnitude of the challenges faced by job seekers living in poverty. In order to find jobs, many low-income individuals need, at the very least, education and skills training. Others require access to additional social services, including help finding child care, health care, or affording transportation. Some are recent immigrants who need ESL instruction. At one organization I visited, I spoke to clients solely through Chinese and Russian-language interpreters, because many of the clients they serve have only been in the country for a few months. I’ve also had an opportunity to explore neighborhoods far away from Columbia University and Morningside Heights. In the past few weeks, I’ve been to Sunset Park and Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, the South Bronx, and I’ll be heading out to Richmond Hill in Queens before long. This internship has really helped me appreciate how enormous New York City is and how diverse its neighborhoods are.
In the midst of working on the projects that I discussed in my first journal entry, I also recently devoted a significant portion of my time to another assignment: putting together an overview of all the grants awarded by the Jobs portfolio this quarter as well as exploring and analyzing some trends about our portfolio’s grant performance in the past few years. Looking at our metrics and how grantees’ performances has changed over time was a terrific way to get a better sense of the full scope of our grants and to learn how a foundation like Robin Hood tracks, interprets, and prioritizes outcomes. Needless to say, analyzing data in order to identify and examine trends is a hallmark of the Columbia Business School approach, and my first year of classes prepared me well for this project.
When I started here, I was expected to begin contributing immediately. At first it was a little overwhelming, but now I’m grateful for the fast start. I’ve learned a lot more this way, and it has been really gratifying to feel like a part of the team. Interning at the Robin Hood Foundation has been a terrific experience so far, and I know I’m going to learn a lot more in the coming weeks.
Journal #3
As I conclude my 11-week summer internship at the Robin Hood Foundation, I want to express my appreciation to the Social Enterprise Summer Fellowship Program at Columbia Business School for helping to support this learning experience and to the Robin Hood Foundation for entrusting me with challenging projects that expanded my knowledge of philanthropy.
I’ve learned so much this summer. I worked in the nonprofit sector for five years before enrolling at the School, but this experience has truly broadened my understanding of how effective nonprofits operate, how to monitor programs to ensure that success is rigorously evaluated, and how analyzing data can lead to program refinements. At the School, I spent a lot of time studying organizational dynamics and how to use data to support decision-making — but applying those lessons firsthand has made all the difference.
At the same time, I’ve learned a lot that I could never have been exposed to in a classroom. Visiting the beneficiaries of Robin Hood’s grants put a human face on poverty in New York. It’s easy to reduce poverty to an abstraction, but when you speak with people about the everyday challenges they face just trying to survive — let alone support their families, build skills, and find jobs — it makes this work so much more meaningful. I will always be grateful to the Robin Hood Foundation for making this experience possible.
I’ll be taking a lot from this experience back to Columbia. My commitment to nonprofit work is renewed and invigorated, and I have a much better sense of how to apply the lessons learned in Business School to the nonprofit sector. This experience has taught me that the skills to excel in both business and philanthropy are essentially the same — the key is to identify and employ an organization’s core resources and competencies in the service of a clear mission. By basing decisions on empirical evidence and carefully evaluating results, both businesses and philanthropies can significantly improve their chances of success. Thanks to Columbia Business School and the Robin Hood Foundation, I now feel like I’m well on my way to making an impact in the nonprofit world, and I’m excited to see where my career will take me next.
