Early in her college career, Nguyen once joked with girlfriends that she’d throw great fundraising dinners later in life because she had to attend so many formal dinners. Was it intuition?

After Nguyen completed her trainee year at Oxford, she took a job at the university in the newly created role of fundraising programs officer for social sciences, which dovetailed well with her academic work. Two years later, she became major gifts officer at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at Oxford, the oldest public museum in the world, dating back to 1683. While there, she raised £10 million ($13 million) for the museum’s endowment campaign and exhibition programs.

“It was when I was at Ashmolean and fundraising for the arts that I felt at home and felt it suited to my personality the most,” she says.

Today at Serpentine Galleries, she champions new ideas in contemporary art, leading a team of 15 to bring in £9 million ($11.7 million) a year. One of the galleries’ high-profile fundraising campaigns commissions a landmark building by an internationally acclaimed architect each year. The pavilion on display this summer and fall, by Japanese architect Junya Ishigami, was made by arranging slates to create a sloping canopy roof that appears to emerge from the ground of the gallery’s surrounding park. The Serpentine Pavilion attracts up to 300,000 visitors annually and is one of the 10 most visited architectural and design exhibitions in the world. 

Nguyen’s advice to those not sure if they want to pursue a career in fundraising: “It takes a village to bring in a gift, so maybe while you may not have the temperament to specialize in major gifts, your more analytical and research mind would be indispensable on the research team. Before you can ask for a gift, you have to find the right prospect.”