Working at Open Road Alliance

By Natalia Alonso, Portfolio Fellow
Atlas Corps Fellow
Hometown: Santiago, Chile

Natalia Alonso joined Open Road Alliance in the Spring of 2017 through the Atlas Corps program. For the past year and a half, Natalia has been a key member of our team, focused on portfolio analytics and quantitative research related to Open Road’s investments. She was instrumental to a number of our initiatives including our latest piece of research, the Roadblock Analysis Report.

With the conclusion of her Atlas Corps Fellowship, Natalia is returning to her home in Santiago, Chile where she will no doubt continue to do impactful work.

We invite all departing interns and fellows to share reflections on their time with Open Road. Here is what Natalia had to say…

Working at Open Road Alliance has been one of the most rewarding professional experiences in my life. After being interviewed by Caroline and Maya, the Director of Social Investments and Executive Director respectively, I knew Open Road was the perfect fit for me. I loved the project, my future role at the organization, and the impact I knew we would have.

Before arriving to Washington D.C. I did not know what to expect. As the days went by, I learned to enjoy the city, and I fell in love with the National Mall and the museums. I enjoyed all the cultural activities like jazz in the garden and summer outdoor movie cinemas, among others.

At my job at Open Road Alliance, I had the fortune to work with a talented group of professionals, who inspired me to deliver a high-quality work product. My supervisor Caroline was amazing, she guided me through impact-focused philanthropy, she challenged me with different kinds of research projects and inspired me to provide the best possible service to our grantees.

Since we support projects all over the world, working at Open Road Alliance allowed me to understand problems across all sectors and geographies. I created the first report for the new loan fund, Open Road Ventures, and led a new research project: Open Road’s Roadblock Analysis Report, the first data set of its kind talking about what goes wrong in the impact focused projects in the social sector.

Living in Washington D.C. allowed me to attend inspiring conferences, like USAID Global Innovation Week and the World Bank Annual Spring Meeting. At the USAID Global Innovation Week, we had the chance to spread the word about the work we do at Open Road Alliance and our grant capital that is available to organizations facing unexpected roadblocks. The World Bank Spring Meeting Conference was extremely interesting; I had the opportunity to attend different panels and listen to experts discuss challenging topics. It was insightful, inspiring, and definitely a great experience.

Additionally, living in the United States allowed me to better understand American philanthropy. According to the United Kingdom-based CAF America Report 2015, America is the second most generous country in the world, with an overall score of 61%. Furthermore, the CAF World Giving Index showed that the United States has the first place in generosity among any other nations in the group of 20 (G-20). United States ranks as the most generous country in the developed world, even when the U.S. score dropped from 64% to 61% in the past year.

Almanac of American Philanthropy measured the amount given to charities and found that the U.S. is the most generous country in the world, over countries like Canada, Grain Britain, Germany, etc. In addition, Americans tend to choose charities over government agencies to solve national social problems.

It has been insightful to live in one of the most generous countries in the world. In my opinion, Americans really trust charities and are willing to donate part of their income to different kinds of organizations to help solve social challenges. This does not mean that charities have an easy job in the United States — they face different kinds of challenges and fundraising can be very hard — but in general terms, I think American philanthropy is strong, and many lessons can be learned from the way philanthropy is done in the United States of America.

Thank you for being a part of the Open Road team, Natalia!

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Natalia joined Open Road Alliance in 2017 as the portfolio fellow.

Prior to Open Road, Natalia worked as a maternity grants analyst at Superintendencia de Seguridad Social (SUSESO) in Chile, she evaluated maternity grants, audited the expense reports of nationally funded subsidies, and analyzed the data related with maternity grants reported by different entities as well as preparing information for the study of public policy in the field of social security.

Previously, she worked as a studies analyst at Servicio Nacional de la Discapacidad (SENADIS) in Chile, analyzing information about different areas of disability and defining indicators. She also was the academic director of the management control diploma at Universidad Mayor in Chile, responsible for designing the academic program, structuring the courses, and recruiting professors in addition to her teaching activities.

Natalia earned a Bachelor’s degree in Management Control Engineering at Universidad de Chile and a Master’s degree in Accounting, Auditing, and Control at Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Netherlands.