Senior Associate, Communications and Programs

Hundreds of funders around the world rely on CEP for insights on maximizing their organization’s effectiveness. Building on our decades of experience, CEP’s Communications and Programs team designs and implements innovative programming to help funders integrate data-backed changes in their work. CEP’s Learning Institute (CLI), which is a part of the Communications and Programs team, offers peer cohorts, workshops, and learning opportunities for foundation staff and leaders. As we build these exciting offerings, CEP seeks a skilled Senior Associate to join its San Francisco, CA or Cambridge, MA office.

Reporting to the Senior Manager, the Senior Associate works closely with the team to design, market, and deliver workshops, trainings, and peer learning cohorts. The Senior Associate collaborates on strategy and content design, leads communications with participants, co-manages technical aspects including registration and online course curricula, and represents CEP in virtual and in-person speaking engagements alongside other CEP staff. This role presents a unique opportunity to shape and build CEP’s offerings at an important moment of growth.   

As the Ideal Candidate, you:  

• Are energized by developing ideas for compelling content and creative ways to support funder learning and implementation of best practices.  

• Have a passion for curriculum design and adult learning, including ability to synthesize and translate data, reports, and research across the philanthropic field for an audience of philanthropic professionals in a compelling and engaging format.

• Have outstanding project management skills. You expertly manage and support numerous simultaneous projects while maintaining attention to detail. You love shepherding work from idea to implementation.   

• Are a strong communicator, both in writing and speaking, able to dynamically connect with an audience in-person as well as via video.  

• Are entrepreneurial, comfortable with ambiguity, and willing to support all aspects of the Communications and Programs team in a fast-paced context.  

• Work well within a team as well as across other departments. You are excellent at managing up.    

Key Responsibilities  

• Collaborate on and provide critical thought partnership in the design and delivery of polished remote and in-person sessions for foundation staff and leaders, for both peer learning cohorts and custom workshops.  

• Co-facilitate remote and in-person learning sessions for foundation staff and leaders.  

• Cultivate and maintain a deep understanding of CEP research, client context, and trends in philanthropy, accurately applying this knowledge and information across CLI offerings.  

• Creatively adapt CEP research findings and contextual knowledge to support funder learning and action, including developing PowerPoint presentations, contributing to session outlines, discussion prompts, guest speaker interview questions, and other tools/activities that support participant learning and engagement.  

• Skillfully apply a lens of equity and inclusion to content design.  

• Collaborate with other members of the team on external communications including registration and ongoing participant communications, doing so with an enthusiastic customer service orientation.  

• Lead the design, execution, and analysis of participant feedback systems.  

• Alongside colleagues, co-manage processes and innovation in Communications and Programs offerings.  

• Actively participate in team discussions, collaborate on cross-team projects, and help to develop the team’s internal knowledge base and operations.  

• Collaborate with the Administrative Coordinator on technical needs including:   

• Participant registration

• Populating and maintaining online course platforms with curriculum content.  

• Manage in-session Zoom logistics including:

• Testing all technical and logistics needs ahead of time

• Understanding how session content and design impact Zoom logistics (creating breakout groups, creating slides for small group notetaking during breakout groups, running Zoom polls, etc.)

• Support and contribute to other Communications and Programs team needs as needed.

• Contribute positively to CEP’s culture by demonstrating a commitment to the organization’s mission and excellence, its belief in the power of good data to improve decision-making, and its commitment to building equity and inclusion into the substance of our work.

Qualifications

• Three years of work experience, with previous consulting, foundation, and/or nonprofit experience highly desired

• Excellent writing and communication skills

• Excitement about improving the effectiveness of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector

• Familiarity with adult learning a plus

• Experience developing and delivering curricula and learning tools (e.g., reflection exercises, facilitation guides, etc.) and facilitating workshops/trainings a major plus

• Demonstrated proficiency in Microsoft Word, Google Suite, Excel, Zoom, PowerPoint, and Outlook; familiarity with Salesforce a plus

• Highest level of personal integrity and commitment to excellence

• Travel annually of up to 10‐20% is required of this position

• A bachelor’s (BA, BS) degree or equivalent is required, with subsequent relevant experience

Benefits

We successfully compete for top talent across the public and private sectors and offer competitive compensation and benefits, including:

• A commitment to pay parity and salary equity. The annual salary for this role is $97,000 in Cambridge and $106,700 in San Francisco. In addition, this role is eligible for competitive Performance Based Incentive Compensation.

• Comprehensive health, dental, vision, and pet insurance plans

• Generous paid time off plan, including three weeks of annually accrued vacation, up to 15 holidays, plus an end-of-year break

• Flexible working schedule options

• 401(k) plan with a 1:1 Employer Match up to 5% of total compensation

• Generous annual personal professional development allowance

• Flexible spending and dependent care tax free savings plans

• Life insurance covered 100% by the organization

Location

We have offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California. This role can be based in either office. This position is not available for all-remote work.

We strive to balance in‐person time with flexibility and the needs of each person, team, and the organization. We believe culture, communication, trust, training, and certain kinds of creative work benefit from in‐office interactions –and that remote work also has many advantages. Staff are expected to be in the office two days per week and enjoy the option to work fully remotely from anywhere four weeks per year.

About CEP

For over two decades, CEP has led the movement to improve philanthropy through a powerful combination of dispassionate analysis and a passionate commitment to improving lives. Over 350 foundations around the world have used CEP’s assessments and advisory services to gather honest feedback from their stakeholders to learn how to be even more effective. CEOs and trustees rely on CEP research for relevant, timely, and actionable insights into foundation effectiveness. Our highly regarded programming—including our biennial conference and peer learning cohorts—enable foundation staff and leaders to connect with peers and hear from compelling expert speakers on the most pressing topics in philanthropy today. Strengths of CEP’s work culture are entrepreneurialism, accountability, teamwork, collegiality, diversity, and mutual respect.

How to Apply
Please fill out our application for employment and attach a resume, writing sample, and a thoughtful cover letter, outlining how your skills and experience meet the qualifications of the position. If you have any questions, please contact our People and Culture department at jobs {at} cep {dot} org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Our Process

Our rolling process includes three interview rounds: an initial conversation with the Vice President of People and Culture, an assessment (conducted virtually), and an in-person day of interviews with members of the team. Our process also includes reference checks in final stages. Check out CEP’s careers page to learn more about how we hire.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

We believe that a diversity of thoughts, experiences, backgrounds, personalities, and identities helps us think bigger and better, and enables us to reach our goals more effectively. We are committed to building a diverse staff and encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply.

Once a candidate begins our process, we discourage outreach to our staff for interviews or conversations that are outside our standard interview process. We have worked hard to design a process that is fair and rigorous and achieves a good match between candidates and CEP.

We evaluate candidates based on their merits. We strongly discourage unsolicited references. We will ask for references if and when a candidate reaches a finalist stage.