Communications and Development Coordinator

Position Overview

The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) seeks a Communications and Development Coordinator to join the Communications and Programs (C&P) team. This full-time role supports two connected areas of CEP’s external-facing work: the day-to-day production and publication of CEP’s communications and marketing content — including our widely read blog, email marketing, and social media — and the operations of CEP’s development function, including drafting grant proposals, funder communications, and maintaining key development records.

This is an excellent opportunity for an early-career writer who wants hands-on experience across the full life cycle of nonprofit communications and fundraising. The Coordinator will work closely with, and take direction from, CEP’s Senior Writer, Editor, and Content Strategist on communications work and CEP’s Associate Manager, Communications and Programs on development work, and will report to the Director, Communications and Programs.

Key Responsibilities

We anticipate the balance of work to be approximately 60 percent communications, 30 percent development, and 10 percent broader team support. This balance may shift over time as priorities and team needs evolve.

Communications 

• Blog production support: Working closely with the Senior Writer and Editor, manage the blog pipeline, including managing a dedicated blog inbox and responding to inquiries and submissions; communicating with guest authors to coordinate publication times and set expectations; and executing publication and distribution of finalized posts. 
• Copyediting. Provide careful final copyedits on blog posts and other content, applying CEP’s style guide.
• Email marketing support. Draft marketing emails such as newsletters, programs marketing, and one-off announcements based on strategy set by the team; build emails in Mailchimp; run the QA process; finalize and send.
• Social media. Maintain and manage CEP’s posting schedule and calendar; post new blog and research content; elevate relevant partner content; and monitor accounts, engaging with and flagging comments as appropriate.
• Research dissemination support. Support launch communications for new CEP research, including media kits, launch-day email blasts, social media campaigns, and webpage content.
• Annual Report. Support drafting and production of CEP’s annual report, including drafting sections, copyediting, and coordinating content and feedback across teams.
• Analytics support. Help track blog, email, and social media performance, and support reporting on engagement trends that inform CEP’s content strategy.

Development 

• Funder stewardship. Draft funder acknowledgments and thank-you letters and other stewardship communications.
• Development data management. Perform development-related data entry and maintain accurate funder and grant records in Salesforce, including gift entry, contact updates, and proposal and deadline tracking.
• Development operations. Provide additional support to the development function as needed, such as preparing materials for funder meetings and tracking upcoming deliverables.
• Grant writing support. Draft grant proposals, letters of inquiry, and funder reports in collaboration with the Associate Manager, Communications and Programs.

Team support 

• Conference and programming support. Provide coordination support for CEP’s biennial conference — a large gathering of philanthropic leaders — and other CEP programs, which may include logistics, speaker communications, and content coordination.
• Other duties. Take on new or shifting responsibilities as CEP's communications and development needs evolve, reflecting the collaborative, all-hands nature of a small team.

The Ideal Candidate

• Considers themselves a writer and communicator first and foremost, with enthusiasm for crafting and operationalizing clear, accurate, and engaging content — and the versatility to move between a blog post, a marketing email, a social media post, and a grant proposal.
• Is a strong copyeditor with the ability to reference and apply an in-house style guide; familiarity with AP style is a plus.
• Is highly detail-oriented and organized, able to manage recurring production processes, multiple projects, and deadlines across two workstreams simultaneously.
• Is a responsive, proactive communicator who can correspond professionally with guest authors, funders, and senior leaders.
• Exercises discretion and sound judgment when handling confidential funder and donor information.
• Is an adaptive and collaborative team player who is receptive to feedback and brings a low-ego approach to the work.
• Is eager to learn about CEP’s mission, nonprofit communications, and fundraising, and to grow with the role.

Requirements

• A bachelor’s degree and 1–3 years of experience in a relevant role (communications, development, or related), or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Excellent writing, editing, and proofreading skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and Google Workspace.
• Our current toolkit includes WordPress, Mailchimp, Asana, and Salesforce. Familiarity with these or similar tools is a plus. Willingness to learn them is required.

Compensation and Benefits

Our nonprofit model is central to our identity: our bottom line is impact, not profit. Yet even as a nonprofit, we successfully compete for top talent across both the public and private sectors and offer competitive compensation and benefits including:

• A commitment to pay parity and salary equity. The 2026 annual salary for this position is $81,640. In addition, this role is eligible for competitive Performance Based Incentive Compensation.
• Comprehensive health, vision, and dental insurance plans.
• Generous paid time off plan, including three weeks of annually accrued vacation, up to 15 holidays, plus an end-of-year break.
• 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.

We strive to balance in-person time with flexibility and the needs of each person, their team, and the larger organization. We believe culture, collaboration, communication, trust- and relationship-building, training, and certain kinds of creative work benefit from in-office interactions – and we believe that the flexibility of remote work also has many advantages. We expect staff to be in the office at least two days per week, and more frequently during new staff introduction periods to support a robust orientation. Everyone enjoys the option to work fully remotely for four weeks per year.
 
Location

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

How to Apply

Please fill out our application for employment and attach a resume, a thoughtful cover letter, outlining how your skills and experience meet the qualifications of the position, and a writing sample. 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.

About CEP

The Center for Effective Philanthropy provides data, analysis, and insight to help individual philanthropists, foundations, and other funders improve their effectiveness. CEP’s mission is rooted in the belief that better philanthropy can be a powerful force for good. Strengths of CEP’s work culture are entrepreneurialism, accountability, teamwork, collegiality, diversity, and mutual respect. CEP is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a second office in San Francisco, California.

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.