Professional Development

Save the date! As organizations committed to strengthening community foundations, CFLeads and the Council on Foundations are partnering to offer a new public policy and advocacy training course for community foundations. This updated training will provide community foundation leaders and staff…

Led by the Council on Foundations Legal Team, this workshop is flexibly organized to ensure that your broad legal questions for administering funds, grants, and community foundation activities are addressed. The legal team will provide technical and practical understanding of complex rules and…

  Over the past two years, the purpose and design of the workplace, a term once used to describe the physical location of an organization, has evolved to include an ever-changing and complex mix of technology, places, and people. Throughout this time, philanthropic employers and HR leaders have…

A well-trained staff and an informed board are critical to the success of community foundations in our fast-changing world. This traditionally in-person, two-day course adapted to virtual in four, half day sessions helps new and growing community foundation staff build the essential skills they…

A well-trained staff and an informed board are critical to the success of community foundations in our fast-changing world. This traditionally in-person, two-day course adapted to virtual in four, half day sessions helps new and growing community foundation staff build the essential skills they…

Created and led by experienced community foundation leaders and Council attorneys, this course includes: Basic information on governance, resource development and donor relations; Updates on key legal and legislative issues; Information on grantmaking; and Review of community leadership and…

Led by the Council on Foundations Legal team, this workshop is flexibly organized to ensure that your broad legal questions for administering funds, grants, and corporate foundation activities are addressed. The legal team will provide technical and practical understanding of complex rules and…

Due to COVID-19, all 2020 Career Pathways in-person programming has been deferred to 2021. This monthly community building hour will give Career Pathways 2020 cohort a virtual opportunity to connect, reflect, share, and discuss a host of topics – from national issues to sector solutions. The…

I’ve just finished a year-long program that aims to bring more diverse senior leadership to the philanthropic sector. My time with Council on Foundations’ Career Pathways program was transformative and will, no doubt, have an impact on my thinking and career trajectory in ways that I can’t yet even…

The CFUnited 2020 Conference is cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. For more information, please see the official conference statement. Learn More   In January 2019, The Council on Foundations joined AdNet, Comma and ProNet as the fourth partner under the CFUnited umbrella to bring the…

I once joked with a friend that I had no personality of my own, rather that I was made up of a Frankenstein patchwork of all the people I’ve met. The tendency to wander in my storytelling? Let me introduce you to my late grandfather. The courage to opine on things not even remotely in my ken? Let…

At our Chicago learning session, I was inspired by the approaches of colleagues from the MacArthur, Kellogg, Joyce, Grand Victoria, and California Wellness foundations, alongside friends from BoardSource and the Council on Foundations. Over the course of three days, these brilliant women (yes, they…

Alejandra Garduño Martinezserves as a program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. As part of Latin America and the Caribbean, she provides leadership and strategy implementation for the place-based program in Mexico. She coordinates grant-making activities, executes programming efforts,…

During her time at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Donita has engaged with a range of individual donors and family foundations, and is now working with her team to gather and disseminate organizational knowledge with the goal of enhancing Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors' profile as a thought…

After working in the philanthropic field for the past 10 years, the Council on Foundations Career Pathways Program gave me the opportunity—and frankly the time—to seriously consider being an executive leader in the sector. It’s not something I could always see for myself. I am happy to say I can…