2025-26 Program

Career Pathways is rigorous, highly personal, and built exclusively for philanthropic professionals. The 2025-2026 program will feature both in-person and virtual components.

Each participant becomes part of a small and mighty group of grantmakers who share, learn, and grow together—through open conversation and focused learning sessions. After completing the program, participants will be prepared to address the field’s current issues and be part of a network of advocates and allies.

Program Components

• Live Sessions | Four interactive multi-day Learning Sessions provide participants with an in-depth and collaborative learning experience. Three of the Learning Sessions will be in-person, multi-day sessions, and one will be bi-weekly, two-hour gatherings hosted  via Zoom. 
• Executive Coaching & Career Development | Participants will receive seven individual professional executive coaching sessions to explore their career obstacles and goals. 
• Peer Circle | Small informal sessions explore participants’ learning progress and career questions. These sessions are facilitated by a Career Pathways alumni.
• Self-Study | Learning sessions will be complemented by a range of asynchronous videos, readings, and activities available via our online learning management system. 
• Philanthropy Exchange Network | Participants will have access to a cohort community in the Philanthropy Exchange the Council’s online peer community.
• Individual Research Project | Participants will engage in a Leadership-in-Action Project, an individual leadership development project focused on addressing an organizational or field-wide challenge. The final learning session is a colloquium format for participants to present their projects.

Need financial support? The Waldman Scholarship covers Career Pathways tuition in full or in part as allocated by need. 

Learning Sessions for 2025-26 Cohort

1. Individual Leadership | We uplift lived experiences as central to embracing clarity on your own wisdom and power. Through reflection and leadership tools, you will hone your values toward being an authentic and visionary leader, while simultaneously focusing on building relationships within the cohort.
2. Field Leadership | Through peer learning, networking, and conversations with seasoned philanthropic leaders, we engage in discussions to understand timely and pressing issues in the field and embrace tensions and opportunities found between the historical, and at times rigid, legacies of philanthropy. Participants also craft their own vision statement for philanthropy. 
3. Organizational Leadership | We dive into conversations with field leaders to learn from their insights, challenges, and successes to gain exposure to management approaches, strategies for organizational development, and tools for integrating equity-oriented practices into your organization’s operations.
4. Culminating Presentation | The program culminates in the Leadership-in-Action Project, which is an opportunity to bring your leadership and ideas into action. The Project enhances your problem-solving skills, analysis, and public speaking skills. The in-person session also celebrates the learning and accomplishments of the cohort individually and collectively.

Participants will leave with a sharpened understanding of their leadership strengths, the skills to engage equity in practice, a growing community of peers, and access to a network to support you as you thoughtfully drive change throughout the philanthropic sector. 

What we expect from you

• Full participation in Learning Sessions | Career Pathways features four multi-day in-person and virtual learning sessions. Travel is required to Learning Session one, two and four. Learning Sessions three will be a series of two-hour virtual gatherings every other week from January to April 2026.  Each learning session will be 20-25 hours of programming. An additional 20-25 hours will go toward homework, coaching sessions, peer circle meetings, and other activities throughout the 10-month program. 
• Participation in individual executive coaching sessions | Each participant will be assigned a professional career coach for personalized guidance on career challenges, goals, and trajectories.  
• Participation in monthly peer circles | Career Pathways alumni will host regular calls for a subgroup of your cohort. This monthly call is for reflection and advice as you move through your Career Pathways journey.  
• Timely homework submissions | Each Learning Session includes pre-reading, online activities, and online engagement.
• Completion of Leadership-in-Action Project | This Project is designed to give you an opportunity to share and receive substantive feedback on a challenge within your own institution or within the philanthropic sector. Using the tools, resources, and networks that Career Pathways has offered, this is an opportunity to think critically, strengthen communication skills and utilize a network of peers and experts to improve practice and expertise. 
• Support of your home institution | Your employer is encouraged to support your participation in the program. It is important to discuss with your organization ways of ensuring that the time invested in your development is honored. This includes, for example, coordinating and distributing your regular responsibilities for you to participate in programming. Additionally, we recommend you are in conversation with your home organization throughout the process to ground your leadership development in the context of your current position.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the Career Pathways program, applicants are expected to:

• Be a current employee of a grantmaking organization, foundation, or philanthropic institution . 
• Have at least 5 years of mid- to senior-level experience.  
• Have a serious interest in a senior and/or executive-level position in the field of philanthropy.
• Receive a recommendation from their home institution (submitted during the application process)