Grant Making Program interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your CV.
2. Tell me about a piece of work you're most proud of — a program, grant, evaluation, or coalition you helped shape.
3. Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you've received and worked on.
4. Why foundation program work — vs running a nonprofit, government, consulting, or staying in the field directly?
5. Why foundation name?
6. Why philanthropy at all? Foundations have real critiques — power, accountability, slow timelines. How do you sit with that?
7. What recent work from foundation name have you been following — and what's your view on it as someone who knows the field?
8. Where does foundation name have the highest-leverage contribution to make in this field, in your view?

Technical concepts to master

• Grant-making cycle — the program officer's daily craft

  Sourcing discipline · Due diligence proportionality · Grant structuring choices · Monitoring + renewal judgment

• Theory of change + evaluation — analytical scaffold for portfolio strategy

  Logic model vs theory of change · Attribution + contribution · Developmental + learning-oriented evaluation · Strategic philanthropy vs emergent strategy

• Trust-based philanthropy — modern practice frame

  Six trust-based practices · Power asymmetry as a working condition · GPR (Grantee Perception Report) as evidence · Reasonable critiques of trust-based practice

• Foundation regulatory + compliance toolkit

  5% minimum distribution requirement · Self-dealing (IRC §4941) · Expenditure responsibility (IRC §4945) · PRI (Program-Related Investment)

Practical drills

• Draft a one-page grant memo for a docket committee on a recommendation we will give you. You have 30 minutes. The memo must include: Recommendation (BLUF — amount, term, restriction in one paragraph), Grantee + leadership snapshot, Theory of change + the bet you are making, Due diligence summary (with honest risks), Structuring rationale (why this size, term, restriction), + Open questions for the committee. Example: 'Recommend a $750K, 3-year general operating support grant to grantee org, a field focus organisation, to support strategic bet; renews previous 2-year project grant.'
• A grantee organisation has submitted a theory of change for a 5-year initiative. Their logic chain: 'We will train 200 community organisers per year; trained organisers will run local campaigns on policy issue; local campaigns will shift public opinion + win local policy changes; local wins will build momentum for state + federal policy change within 5 years.' Critique this theory of change as the program officer reviewing it. Where is it strong, where is it weak, what would you push back on, + what would make you fund it?
• A new organisation has been recommended by a peer funder for a $500K, 2-year project grant in your portfolio area. The organisation has a $1.8M annual budget, 14 staff, 3 years of audited financials, + a charismatic founder-ED in year 4. Walk me through how you would diligence this grant — site visit, financials, references, theory of change, risk flags — + what you would be looking for at each step.

Smart-question anchors

• Portfolio mix in the first 12-18 months — what dockets + bets the candidate would touch first
• Strategy refresh cadence — how often the foundation revisits its theory of change + how program officers feed into it
• Trust-based posture in practice — how the six practices show up in the foundation's actual grant terms + reporting
• Grantee relationships — how the foundation makes it safe for grantees to surface bad news
• Learning + evaluation — how the foundation balances accountability + developmental learning across the portfolio

Sourced from

Council on Foundations + Foundation Source program officer guidance · Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) — Grantee Perception Reports + program officer research · Trust-Based Philanthropy Project — six grant-making practices · GrantCraft + Candid (formerly Foundation Center) — practice guides · Stanford Social Innovation Review — strategic philanthropy + evaluation literature · IRS Form 990-PF + private foundation regulatory framework (5% payout, excise tax, self-dealing, expenditure responsibility) · Policy school + nonprofit career-services interview prep materials (HKS, Princeton SPIA, McCourt, Wagner, Heller)