In this episode, Cindy M. Lott, Esq. brings wisdom from a remarkable career that includes building two post-graduate nonprofit academic programs. She encourages you to first identify and be guided by your own North Star, then use the framework she shares to evaluate your nonprofit career opportunities. As you apply and interview, demonstrate how you can be value-add today to the nonprofit. Because as she puts it: “passion alone won’t get you there, you have to have skill.” Hear about how the first-ever doctorate in Philanthropy will advance the sector through applied research and discover the case for professionalization of the industry.
Cindy's full biography and show notes available at www.askingforgood.com
Cindy M. Lott, Esq., is Clinical Professor of Philanthropic Studies, Director of the Professional Doctorate in Philanthropic Leadership (PhilD) and Stead Policy Fellow at Indiana University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Her teaching, research, writing and consulting span nonprofit management, ethics, governance, law, regulation and policy. Since 2006, she has developed and moderated a series of national convenings on state and federal regulation of the charitable sector and is engaged in research regarding regulatory capacity and enforcement at the state level. Lott is a frequent speaker at national conferences in the areas of philanthropic and nonprofit state regulation, compliance, ethics, management and governance.

Lott also serves as a fellow at the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., and was an inaugural Policy Fellow at Independent Sector, the world’s largest membership organization devoted to the nonprofit sector. She was a member of the U.S. IRS Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt Entities (ACT, 2015-2018), currently serves on the public policy committee of Independent Sector, is the Chair of the Public Policy, Politics and Law section of ARNOVA, is a member of the Global Philanthropy Environment Index Advisory Council, an international research project by the Indiana University Lilly School of Philanthropy, and is co-chair of the state sub-committee on state issues for exempt organizations within the American Bar Association. She has worked with major foundation leaders on behalf of the Council on Foundations and was a board member of the national charity monitor Wise Giving Alliance.
Prior to joining the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, she was Associate Professor of Professional Practice and Academic Director for Nonprofit Management Programs at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies, where she developed the program and curriculum for the M.S. Nonprofit Management. Lott served as Executive Director and Senior Counsel to the National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia Law School, where she worked with state attorneys generals on a diverse range of issues, even as she created and served as lead counsel to the Charities Regulation and Oversight Project, funded by the Ford Foundation and the C.S. Mott Foundation. As Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School, she co-taught an Advanced Research Seminar on State Attorneys General.

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