• Ability to recognize what your board wants to support
  
• Knowledge of the fields funded by your foundation
  
• Grasp of the context within your funding strategy
  
• Ability to synthesize large amounts of information and communicate its essence to the board
  
• Ability to communicate

Growth opportunities
It seems nobody ever becomes a program officer knowing everything they need to know. They need to make continuing professional development a high priority. In most cases, professional development will originate from two sources:

• Research
  
• Relationships
  

Grantmaking trends
In 1997, funders were asked to remark on recent trends in grantmaking.

Occupational hazards
There are six occupational hazards that will trip you up if you aren’t looking:

• Where you go, the money will follow
  
• The power
  
• Other people’s expectations
  
• Isolation
  
• A workload that can bury you
  
• The curse of unintended consequences
  

Guidelines for everybody
All foundations and corporate giving programs need to establish and disseminate their program guidelines to avoid a constant barrage of irrelevant, time-wasting proposals.

• What can well-crafted program guidelines accomplish?
  
• What should program guidelines contain?
  

You also want to be forthright with grantseekers. Don’t waste their time by making them “jump through hoops” to make their proposal fit your foundation’s guidelines if those guidelines are about to change. See Are You Arrogant?

New to grantmaking?
If you are new to the field of grantmaking, it will take some time and effort to learn what is required of you on the job.

What can you do now to make progress toward your occupational goals?