Financial Planning & Analysis Intern - Summer

Job Description

NOTE:

To ensure a fair and equitable recruitment process, our Foundation Staff and Board do not host preliminary conversations with applicants outside of our standard interview process.

Financial Planning & Analysis Intern - Summer 2027

Senior Financial Analyst

Chicago, IL (Hybrid)

June 8 - August 11, 2027

Paid Internship (Hourly rates will start at $22.00/hour)

The John

D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Foundation is one of the nation’s largest independent foundations. The Foundation supports creative people, effective institutions, and influential networks building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. Mac Arthur invests in solving some of the world’s most pressing social challenges, including advancing global climate solutions, promoting local justice reform in the U.S., revitalizing local news, expanding who creates, uses, and benefits from artificial intelligence, and strengthening the well-being of Native communities.

In addition to the Mac Arthur Fellows Program and the global 100&Change competition, the Foundation continues its historic commitments to the role of journalism in a responsive democracy as well as the vitality of our headquarters city, Chicago. The Foundation also maintains offices in Nigeria and India.

The Financial Planning & Analysis intern will 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 Senior Financial Analyst, 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.

• Explore key performance indicators (KPIs), financial scorecards, dashboards and other visual representations to illustrate financial performance.
• Assist with the build of automated interactive financial models and scenario-planning.
• Assist with automation of month-end close reporting tools to help streamline reconciliation and variance analysis.
• Leverage AI software to enhance FP&A processes with Microsoft products.
• Analyze trends in expenses, headcount, or other key metrics and summarize findings for leadership.
• Perform 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.
• Assist with review of annual budget submissions and preparation of internal reports to summarize variance analyses and discussion items by cost center.
• Assist with ad hoc analysis requests from department heads.
• Other duties as assigned.

• Currently enrolled in an undergraduate program in their junior year.
• Major in Finance, Accounting or Data Analytics preferred.
• Strong Excel skills (pivot tables, formulas, ideally Power Query or macros).
• Experience with PowerBI or other data visualization software is a plus.
• Detail-oriented, comfortable working with large datasets.
• Intellectual curiosity: willing to ask "why" a number moved, not just report that it did.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Strong organizational and data management abilities.
• Strong presentation and writing skills.

This internship is based in Chicago, Illinois. Our work environment is hybrid with designated in-office days and virtual days. Interns will be required to reside in the Chicagoland area for the duration of the program. Housing assistance…