Job Description

Position: Financial Planning & Analysis Intern - Summer 2025

Reports to: Director, Financial Planning & Analysis

Location: Chicago, Illinois (Hybrid)*

Duration: June 10 - August 13, 2025

Compensation: Paid Internship

About the Foundation:

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the nation's largest independent foundations. The Foundation boldly invests in creative solutions to urgent challenges, sparking hope for our future.

We work on a few big bets that strive toward transformative change in areas of profound concern, including the existential threats of climate change and nuclear risk, the challenges of criminal justice reform and revitalizing local news in the U.S. and corruption in Nigeria.

In addition, we maintain enduring commitments in our hometown Chicago, where we invest in people, places, and partnerships to build a more inclusive Chicago and in journalism and media, where we invest in more just and inclusive news and narratives.

We also make awards to extraordinarily creative individuals through the MacArthur Fellows program and for solutions to critical problems of our time through 100&Change. For more information, please visit our website is at www.macfound.org.  

About the Department:

The Finance Department is responsible for the accounting and finance functions for John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (including two international offices in India and Nigeria), Arc Chicago LLC, and its affiliate Lever for Change. The Finance Department is looking to hire an intern this summer to support the FP&A function and provide project support in the areas of financial reporting, analytics, operations, and other special projects. This position will work with the FP&A team and report to the Director, FP&A.

The intern will assist the team with the annual budget development cycle and monthly forecast process, as well as data analysis and trend analysis related to the Foundation spend. The intern will gain skills and experience in private foundation financial operations, reporting and analysis.

About the Internship:

Responsibilities may include:

• Exploring key performance indicators (KPIs), financial scorecards, dashboards and other visual representations to illustrate financial performance

• Analyzing historical expenses related to current and former grantmaking programs to understand costs of building out new areas of work and winding down existing areas of work

• Reviewing annual budget submissions and preparation of internal reports to summarize variance analyses and discussion items by cost center

• Reviewing financial metrics related to private foundation payout and comparison to peers using Form 990-PF data

• Performing industry research on assigned finance-related grantmaking operations and report findings to FP&A team. Research may include grant payment processes, operational expense reporting, or multi-year payout reporting

• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications:

• Currently enrolled in an undergraduate degree program entering their Senior year in the Fall of 2025

• Major in Finance, Accounting or Data Analytics

• Advanced kn