JudithRodin

I am the President of the Rockefeller Foundation and a former President of the University of Pennsylvania. I am not familiar with this group.

The Rockefeller Foundation is a 100 yo global philanthrophy that is working to try and accomplish two goals around the world: to build greater resilience and to build more inclusive prosperity. We have amazing colleagues who care deeply about improving the lives & livelihoods of some of the worlds poorest and most vulnerable people.

The best program officers are those who develop real substantative expertise and are strategic in their grant making. Philanthropy is different from charity and so any experience that helps you understand how to solve problems at their root cause is going to be critical. Our founder John D Rockefeller once said "we don't want to put bandages on weeping wounds", meaning let's solve the problem where it started. there are lots of ways for you to develop that kind of experience, but once you do, it will make you exceptionally successful in having the kind of impact that philanthropy should be having because it's America's tax advantaged risk capital.

Thanks so much for the question. We actually have what we call an innovation pathway at Rockefeller, where we use our funding to promote and identify innovation and we fund social enterprise directly at times, but more importantly we are funding entrepreneurs to have the ecosystem that will enable more social enterprises to grow around the world. We have also been at the forefront of the field of impact investing, which is enabling private investors to put their money where they get a double bottom line return--both social and environmental impact and a financial return. We love this space and have invested a lot of time and energy in social enterprise and impact investing.

So this is such an easy one to answer, because I spent so many years in New Haven where fights break out amongst people around that question and around whether Sally's or Pepe's is the best pizza place. My favorite is Pepe's white clam pizza, it's amazing!