Career Path Of A Senior Vice President At Fundraising Consulting Company
Polly's career path began with a college job at an after-school program for foster and homeless children, sparking an interest in working with kids which led to a teaching role with Teach For America. A layoff transitioned their career into instructional coaching and eventually into fundraising, a field Polly found unexpectedly fulfilling after working with a nonprofit's board and seeing "how important...a sustainable fundraising model is and how many opportunities there are...to tell stories and elevate the brand."
Nonprofit Management, Fundraising, Education, Career Transition, Consultative Services
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Polly Breit
Senior Vice President
Fundraising Consulting Company
University of Wisconsin, Madison
N/A
Classics, Spanish Literature
Nonprofit, Foundations & Grantmaking
Consulting
Honors Student
Video Highlights
1. Polly's passion for working with children, initially sparked through her job at an after-school program for children in foster care and homeless shelters, eventually led her to a career in education and non-profit work.
2. Her experience as a Teach for America teacher and instructional coach provided a strong foundation for her later transition into fundraising.
3. She emphasizes the importance of a sustainable fundraising model for nonprofits and highlights the opportunity to tell stories and elevate the brand and impact of organizations through fundraising, suggesting that this career path often develops organically through experience in non-profit work rather than being a childhood aspiration.
Transcript
Could you walk me through your career path, starting with your experiences in college and any internships or jobs you had before your current role?
Sure. In college, I worked at an after-school program for children in the foster care system or homeless shelters. It really sparked my interest.
I loved working with kids and I had known that going into it, but this confirmed that it was something I was interested in as part of my career moving forward. I applied for Teach For America in my senior year of college.
I taught third grade in Los Angeles and probably would have stayed teaching. However, I had a type of credential where, after my second year teaching, all teachers on that credential were laid off. I ended up moving into instructional coaching.
So, I was still working in schools and education but not in my own classroom at that point. I just fell into fundraising. I don't know if I know anyone who said they grew up wanting to be a fundraiser.
I think it's something you're exposed to when working with nonprofits and seeing how important a sustainable fundraising model is. There are so many opportunities to tell stories and elevate the brand and impact of organizations.
I was still working with Teach For America when our executive director at the time asked if I'd be interested in working with our board. We had a pretty ambitious growth plan then and needed help fundraising for it.
It was something I was interested in trying, but I didn't see it becoming my career. I thought I would stay specifically in education. That was sort of right where I started my career in nonprofit management, and then moved into a consulting role from there, which I can talk about as well.