Application Guide
How to Apply for Information Security Lead
at Longview Philanthropy
🏢 About Longview Philanthropy
Longview Philanthropy is a nonprofit that designs and executes bespoke giving strategies for major donors, focusing on long-term problems that are often neglected. Working here means directly influencing how significant philanthropic capital is allocated to high-impact causes, combining intellectual rigor with real-world altruism. The organization is small, growing, and values autonomous decision-makers who can shape strategy from the ground up.
About This Role
As the Information Security Lead, you will own and build the security strategy for a growing philanthropic organization, identifying threats, prioritizing remediation, and adapting plans as the threat landscape evolves. You will drive execution through external providers like Personified MSP, ensuring accountability for vulnerability closure and security improvements. This role is impactful because you'll protect sensitive donor data and enable the organization to scale securely while maintaining trust with major donors.
💡 A Day in the Life
A typical day might involve reviewing vulnerability reports from the MSP, prioritizing remediation efforts with internal stakeholders, and making decisions on access requests or security exceptions. You might also spend time evaluating a new AI tool for compliance, updating security policies, or meeting with vendors to ensure they meet contractual security requirements. As the security lead, you'd balance strategic planning with hands-on oversight, ensuring the organization remains secure while enabling its philanthropic mission.
🚀 Application Tools
🎯 Who Longview Philanthropy Is Looking For
- Has built or owned a security function at a small or growing organization, ideally in a cloud-first environment with outsourced IT/MSP relationships.
- Demonstrates strong judgment in risk prioritization and can make autonomous decisions without perfect information, balancing security with operational needs.
- Experienced in managing vendor relationships, privileged access controls, and security requirements, and can assess whether an outsourced model remains appropriate as the organization scales.
- Possesses broad knowledge of identity, access, endpoint security, data protection, and AI governance, with the ability to oversee rather than personally administer every tool.
📝 Tips for Applying to Longview Philanthropy
Highlight specific instances where you built or owned a security function from scratch, especially in a small or growing organization—quantify the impact (e.g., reduced vulnerabilities by X%, improved incident response time).
Emphasize your experience managing external providers (MSPs, MSSPs) and holding them accountable; Longview explicitly mentions Personified MSP, so demonstrate you can drive results through vendors.
Show your ability to prioritize risks and make autonomous decisions by describing a time you had to decide on remediation without perfect information, and how you balanced security with business needs.
Tailor your resume and cover letter to the philanthropic context: express genuine interest in Longview's mission and how security enables their work with major donors.
Demonstrate familiarity with AI governance and cloud-first security challenges, as these are explicitly mentioned in the job description.
✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter
['Your experience building or owning a security function at a small/growing organization, and how you adapted as it scaled.', 'Your approach to managing external providers and ensuring accountability for security improvements, with concrete examples.', 'Your judgment on risk prioritization and ability to make autonomous decisions, especially in ambiguous situations.', "Your motivation to apply your security expertise in a philanthropic context and contribute to Longview's mission."]
Generate Cover Letter →🔍 Research Before Applying
To stand out, make sure you've researched:
- → Longview Philanthropy's mission, key projects, and the types of donors they work with, to understand the sensitivity of the data you'd be protecting.
- → The role of Personified MSP and other external providers Longview uses, to anticipate how you'd collaborate with them.
- → Recent trends in information security for nonprofits and philanthropic organizations, including common threats and compliance requirements.
- → Longview's organizational structure and size to understand the scale and culture you'd be operating in.
💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics
Based on this role, you may be asked about:
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Focusing only on technical skills without demonstrating strategic thinking and risk prioritization, which are critical for this lead role.
- Neglecting to mention experience with external providers or MSPs, as this is a core part of the job.
- Being overly prescriptive about tools and technologies without showing flexibility and judgment in a resource-constrained environment.
📅 Application Timeline
This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.
Typical hiring timeline:
Application Review
1-2 weeks
Initial Screening
Phone call or written assessment
Interviews
1-2 rounds, usually virtual
Offer
Congratulations!
Ready to Apply?
Good luck with your application to Longview Philanthropy!