Welcome to the school where Gen Z learns philanthropy as billionaire wealth explodes—with a 100% job placement rate

When Ella Traina, a sophomore at Indiana University, thinks about her future, she isn’t focused on becoming a CEO or making a fortune. She wants to figure out how to make the world a little better.

That might sound like a lofty ambition for a 19-year-old, but Traina is taking a decidedly practical approach: She’s studying philanthropy at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, the first school of its kind in the world.

She’s part of a growing cohort of students doing the same. Over the past decade, enrollment at the school has grown more than 300% from about 50 students to roughly 230, as students explore careers in nonprofits, foundations, corporations, and government. The school says it has had a 100% job placement rate for the past three years—a higher rate than the university’s business school students. 

The growth comes as more young people look for careers that offer something beyond a paycheck and a chance to make a tangible difference. And in a world where wealth is increasingly concentrated among the richest Americans, philanthropy is becoming an important part of the conversation about how money and resources can be put to work for the public good.

Meanwhile, the $124 trillion Great Wealth Transfer—the passing down of baby boomer fortunes to younger generations—begs the question of how philanthropy will look in the future. Will millennials and Gen Z carry on the traditions of their family fortunes, or will they chart their own path?

These are the types of questions a philanthropy education can explore, as well as how the wealthy are filling the void left by the federal government, which has pulled back funding for nonprofits and higher education institutions. 

Gen Z wants to make a difference and make a living—and philanthropy could offer both

Indiana University’s roots in philanthropy education go back decades. The university formally organized its fundraising teaching and research into an academic center in 1987. A quarter-century later, in 2012, it was established into an official philanthropy-focused school, making it the first place in the world dedicated exclusively to the study and teaching of the subject. Today, it is one of the few places where students can earn a bachelor’s, master’s, or Ph.D. specifically focused on philanthropy.

The school’s development has been supported by the Lilly Endowment—established in 1937 by the family of pharmaceutical executive Eli........

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