Best Of
The Cape Cod Foundation - Program Officer, Cohorts and Collaborations
INTRODUCTION:
The mission of The Cape Cod Foundation is to strengthen Cape Cod for current and future generations through thoughtful community leadership and strategic philanthropy. The Cape Cod Foundation makes a measurable difference in the community by being a source of solutions for donors, providing leadership, and leveraging resources. The Foundation is
known as a proactive, high-quality grant maker that uses its knowledge to support strategic investments that result in meaningful impact and meet the unmet needs of the community.
The Foundation Board of Directors has adopted a strategic framework for 2026-2028. Essential to the success of plan implementation and the overall goal of advancing our role as a transformational community leader and grant maker is continuing to build and promote a high-performance culture among staff, Board, and volunteers. To this end, while we
effectively utilize the individual contributions and skills of each team member, we stress a collaborative, multi-departmental approach to achieving our goals and expanding collective impact.
At The Cape Cod Foundation, the role of Officer is responsible for research, assessment, decision-making and execution of core projects or work areas aligned with the Foundation’s mission. Officers assume responsibility for meeting targets set collaboratively with a director or VP. Program Officers meet independently with stakeholders and can represent their area of
work to the community on behalf of the Foundation. Officers are expected to demonstrate strong critical thinking and communication skills and relevant subject-area or industry knowledge. Specifically, the Program Officer is highly organized and ethical, builds deep connections with grantees, keeps up with and incorporates new ideas from the field, addresses questions and challenges, and brings a collaborative and learning mindset to the work. Specifically, the Program Officer, Cohorts & Collaborations, works on projects that involve shared learning, cohorts, or collaborative actions.
Lead:
• Yearly grantmaking including but not limited to:
• Grant programs and Specific Fund grants
• Special grants as outlined in the Grants Workplan for each year.
• Small group cohort-based work for the Catalyst Grants, or other efforts. This may include agenda development,
scheduling, planning, and follow up /assessment. Lead cohorts with an eye to the goal of strengthening nonprofits.
• Maintenance of nonprofit and community relationships,
• Development of sector-specific briefing information for use of the entire team.
• Development and participation in webinars/info-session about grant opportunities
• Designing and convening of community meetings, as needed
• Coordination of Youth in Philanthropy project and identification of opportunities to expand its impact
• Identification of themes/needs from nonprofit partners, as well as new opportunities for the Foundation.
• Tracking of key metrics and reporting on trends, learnings and implications. Responding to grant-related phone calls and emails
• Serving as an admirable representative of the Foundation in all endeavors
Collaborate:
• With Foundation staff, Board, and committees on assessment and evaluation of impact across all our program related activities, including regarding our overall objective of “strengthening nonprofits”
• With Foundation staff to maximize understanding and utilization of our grantmaking database/software, ensuring accurate records, understanding best practices, and suggesting new processes or adjustments as required
• With Foundation staff to achieve marketing deadlines and goals
• With Foundation staff on cross-team and cross-organization projects as needed
• With Foundation staff to identify and pursue opportunities for professional development and share relevant learnings
Support:
• Ongoing processes of the Program Team, as assigned
• As a staff evaluator for scholarship or grant processes
• Take on new projects as assigned
• Represent the Foundation at community events as needed
• Attend and represent the organization on external working groups/committees as assigned
QUALIFICATIONS:
The successful candidate will come to this role with a background in program or nonprofit management, community organizing or grantmaking and bring strong relationship-building, communication, and critical thinking skills to the work.
3-5 years’ experience in a nonprofit or similar work setting is required. Demonstrated experience with convening and leading small groups is required. A knowledge of Cape Cod and local nonprofit landscape is a plus.
Additional qualifications include:
• Detail-oriented, responsible, energetic, personable, self-directed
• Excellent organizational skills; ability to plan workflows, handle multiple tasks simultaneously, manage details, problem solve, and meet deadlines
• Strong oral, written and interpersonal skills
• High degree of personal and professional integrity including absolute need to maintain confidentiality on behalf of donors and applicants
• Proficient at meeting facilitation
• Highly proficient with technology; strong computer skills with specific software (MS Word, Excel, and Windows), database management systems and use of the Internet, and willingness to learn customized foundation software
• Comfortable working with diverse groups of people
• Committed to ongoing professional development
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience is preferred.
The Cape Cod Foundation follows an equal opportunity employment policy and employs personnel without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, citizenship, age, religion, creed, disability, familial status, military status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local law.
To apply: Please send a cover letter expressing your interest and qualifications AND a copy of your current resume by email to: info@capecodfoundation.org. Salary range is $38-41 per hour. Applications will be accepted until position is filled. No phone calls please.
https://www.capecodfoundation.org/who-we-are-job-opportunities/
Peak 2026
Attending PEAK? RSVP for our happy hour!
Space is limited, so please be sure to RSVP as soon as possible!
After a day of learning and connections at PEAK, we’re excited to continue the conversation and bring our united Foundant, SmartSimple, and GivingData user communities together.
Date: March 25, 2026
Time: 5:30–7:00 PM
Location: Trust (401 Pine Street, St. Louis, MO 63102)
Join us to connect with fellow funders — see old friends, make new ones, and celebrate the good you're bringing into the world.
Percentage of applications funded
I was having a philosophical conversation with a grant administrator and we were chatting about the average approval rate for grant processes. What would you consider a 'normal' approval rate (partial or full funding) for your competitive grants?
Ending grantee relationships, shifting strategies
Hi folks, I'm looking to connect with other community foundation colleagues who have undergone strategy shifts that made significant changes to grant processes (e.g., decreased grant amounts, sunsetting previous grantee relationships that no longer are strategy aligned). We are shifting discretionary resources to 'upstream' policy and systems solutions, and this will have a significant impact on many 'legacy' direct service partners. Would love to hear any lessons learned or intel you might have on these topics!
Teamwork, Training, and a Touch of Seattle Magic!
I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined us at the Seattle Regional Training! The event was an incredible success, and we are truly grateful to work alongside such dedicated, intelligent, and passionate clients.
Our training team was inspired by your engagement, energy, and the meaningful conversations that took place throughout the day. There’s nothing quite like stepping away from the screen and connecting with you in person—hearing your stories, learning about the impactful work you're doing in your communities, and celebrating your successes.
To those who attended: we’d love to see the event through your eyes! Feel free to share any photos or reflections from your experience—we always appreciate seeing your perspectives and memories.
We can’t wait for the next opportunity to gather, learn, and grow together. If you couldn’t make it this time, we hope to see you at a future training!
Has this happened to you? Deceased a profile record and now Community Suite is haunted?
I set a profile record to 'deceased' and suddenly all the text in our Community Suite instance started bleeding - I assume our instance in haunted now?
I tried Goo-ghoul to find a techxorcist, but that turned up nothing.
Has anyone else experienced this before?
Thanks,
Mitch Hollberg
PS - For reference, the donor name is Elles, April Foux (profile id 620617)
Searching for Nonprofit Surveys from Community Foundations
Hello,
Our Community Foundation is expanding our Nonprofit Capacity Building. We would like to survey our nonprofits to determine: nonprofit size in our community, staff, budgets, role (arts, animal welfare, etc), board demographics/need, facility needs, current funding streams, desired funding streams, nonprofit collaborative efforts, desired nonprofit collaborative efforts, short term outcomes, long term outcomes, volunteer needs, educational needs (board assistance, leadership/management assistance, financial management assistance, donor cultivation, grant writing, grant search tool assistance, etc).
Does anyone have a Survey that you can share? What did you like about your survey? What would you change? How has the Survey helped your Community Foundation improve your relationship with nonprofits?
Any information would be appreciated! Thank you!!
Florida Regional Training!
We are excited to announce Foundant is coming to St. Pete Beach, Florirda for a Regional Training November 18-19!
Register here to connect with your Foundant peers at our 2-day software training and networking event.
We hope to see you there!
Scholarship Thank You
We require the students to write their "thank you to the donors" on the follow-up form when they claim their scholarship. If they received more than one scholarship, they write one thank you. I attach the letter and email it to the donors/fund advisors. I'm curious on how others handle thank you letters. This is our second year with this procedure. We had one complaint this year as they felt it was not personal enough and because it was emailed. I believe this works quite well, we are not chasing down thank you notes/letters from students and holding up scholarship payments. I would love any feedback! Thank you!





