About Connecticut Community Foundation
Established in 1923, Connecticut Community Foundation envisions an equitable, inclusive, just, and vibrant community in Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills where all residents have what they need to thrive. We work to achieve this vision by inspiring generosity, supporting organizations, and cultivating effective leaders. While serving this 21-town region, the Foundation provides leadership in addressing the community's critical issues, strengthens local nonprofit organizations through grants and technical assistance programs, and works with individuals, families, nonprofit organizations, and corporations to administer more than 600 charitable funds.
Values
The Foundation strives to be open, strategic, and fair, demonstrating integrity and commitment for the long term: a welcoming partner that works to meet community needs by effectively transforming ideals into action. Values the Foundation embraces and practices include:
- Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. We welcome, invite, and commit resources toward the participation and well-being of all in our community.
- Integrity and Transparency. We hold ourselves to high standards of ethics, service, stewardship, and accountability to our donors, partners, and community.
- Courage and Purpose. We set ambitious goals, forge connections, and collaborate to address our community’s needs.
- Thoughtful Leadership. We listen, learn, and evolve along with our community.
Strategy
The Foundation uses equity as our touchstone and as the prism through which we decide how best to marshall our resources to have the greatest impact for the good of the entire community. We acknowledge that there are stark differences in quality of life and well-being among people in Greater Waterbury and Litchfield Hills based on race, income, age, gender, and geography. Disparities are particularly striking for Black and Brown residents and low-income residents in Waterbury—the region’s central city—and touch on all aspects of life. We believe that the Foundation has an important role to play in leveraging our region’s overall prosperity and strength to address inequities and create positive change. In order to have the greatest impact we are committed to using data – alongside our values – to inform how and where we invest, and how we mobilize and work alongside others to promote well-being across the region.
We also recognize that to be effective, how we do our work matters. We are an institution with a long history, great privilege, and a responsibility to the community. We cannot successfully apply an equity lens to pursuing our priorities without turning the lens inward. In 2022, we adopted a plan entitled Operationalizing for Racial Equity, which addresses all aspects of the Foundation’s work – governance, finance, grantmaking, development, communications, and administration – and identifies a wide range of activity aimed at ensuring that the Foundation’s work aligns with its stated mission, priorities, and values.
For more information on Connecticut Community Foundation, please visit their website.
The Opportunity
A visionary, collaborative, creative, and strategic President & CEO will have the opportunity to further shape an organization that has undergone considerable introspection and change in recent years. This mission-driven leader will oversee all aspects of Connecticut Community Foundation’s work, which includes expanding philanthropy in the region, thoughtfully distributing a portfolio of approximately $7 million in grants and scholarships annually and engaging regularly and deeply in community leadership activities. The President & CEO will have the opportunity to use an array of tools, including grantmaking, convening, advocacy, making connections, mobilizing, engaging and advising donors and other funders, and building capacity in nonprofits, leaders, and institutions, all with the goal of promoting positive community change.
This work is fueled by assets of approximately $150 million held in more than 600 funds established by local donors. Many of the funds under management are endowed. The Foundation boasts a talented and committed staff of 17, a highly engaged board of trustees, and scores of local volunteers who comprise their committees. As Connecticut Community Foundation embarks on its second century of service to the community in 2024, this is an exciting opportunity for the next President & CEO to build on current strengths and steer the Foundation toward future growth and expanded impact.
Key Responsibilities:
- Bearing primary responsibility for pursuing the Foundation’s priorities, including implementation of the strategic and racial equity plans as well as future visioning and organizational evolution.
- Serving as the primary spokesperson and face of the Foundation to grantees, donors, stakeholders, and the region-at-large.
- Fostering a robust, proactive development effort aimed at supporting a diverse base of donors in their philanthropy, building financial support for the Foundation’s strategic priorities, and expanding the resources available to the community in both the near and long terms.
- Inspiring and motivating staff through collaborative and empowering leadership that maximizes staff talents and skills and centers equity in the Foundation’s internal systems and ways of working.
- Supporting strong governance by cultivating, empowering, and supporting a diverse and inclusive Board of Trustees.
- Engaging in strategic, community, and thought leadership by collaborating with a wide range of partners, leveraging external resources to support community priorities, and identifying opportunities for collaboration and advocacy.
- Advancing mission-aligned grantmaking, capacity building, and evaluation efforts.
- Ensuring a culture of learning where data is used to assess impact and guide decisions.
- Guiding the Foundation in prudent and transparent financial management, including the effective stewardship of the Foundation’s assets and oversight of the annual operating budget.
- Raising the profile of the Foundation through the effective communication of priorities and the various roles they play in the community.