Open call for analysts

QUOI is recruiting undergraduate and graduate students to join us as analysts.

Summary

QUOI is a small, agile philanthropy working on a limited number of hard questions of national and global importance. We take creative approaches to hard-to-crack philanthropic priorities and contribute analytic and monetary resources where the sector lags.

Our team brings together Harvard students and graduates from different generations. We prioritize working with motivated and energetic students and supporting their journeys through Harvard and beyond.

We hire students as colleagues, not assistants; able to size up opportunities, to identify persons worth backing, to get us into the right rooms, and to shape the projects we take on.

Current priorities

A long-standing interest for our team is the undue influence of money in our elections and our government. Since Citizens United, spending on American elections has climbed steeply while philanthropic investment in fixing the problem has declined.

Heading into the 2028 campaign cycle, corruption now ranks alongside affordability among voters' top concerns. We're exploring what strategic research, such as quantifying what money in politics costs the average American or designing publicly financed electoral media, may help candidates, other actors, and the public rally around change.

We also have undertaken initiatives to enhance, if only infinitesimally, the likelihood of a near-term end to the tragic conflict in Ukraine.

Because much of our work is not public, the application process offers the fullest view of our team and our research. We welcome applications from all interested candidates.

The role

The analyst role calls for a mix of creativity, research rigor, and entrepreneurial instinct. Student colleagues will help shape the deployment of our resources and the identification of opportunities.

Analysts have previously:

• Built a business plan to launch a new-media news venture with top talent from The New York Times

  
  

• Organized meetings with high-ranking officials such as current and former members of Congress, philanthropic leaders, and others

  
  

• Mapped unfamiliar fields quickly: who the players are, what's already been done, where the gaps are

What we're looking for

• Comfort with ambiguity and questions that don't have settled answers

  
  

• Strong research and writing ability, whatever the discipline

  
  

• Initiative: student colleagues significantly affect the determination of initiatives undertaken

Benefits

Beyond compensation, we offer a collegial environment committed to supporting each member's intellectual and professional development. Past student affiliates have stayed involved or in touch with us over multiple years and even beyond their time at Harvard.

Details

• Commitment: Flexible with a minimum commitment of at least 5 hours per week

• Compensation: Well above market rate

• Location: Cambridge/remote 

• Start date: By late October 2026

To apply

Send your resume, a past academic paper (any field), and answers to the following 2 questions to nicolas@post.harvard.edu by midnight ET on Friday October 2nd. 

• What is the most important issue facing our society, and what do we not yet know about it, or its solutions, empirically?

• You're advising a Democratic donor with $10,000 to spend on the upcoming midterm races. Where does it go and why?