Description

Please visit cacfonline.org/careers to read the full job description. 

Department: Philanthropic Engagement (PE) 
Reports to: Director of Philanthropic Engagement or designee Position
Status: Full time, Exempt Salary: $80,000-$95,000 —robust employee benefits package detailed below
Position is based in Charlottesville, VA. Hybrid work schedule with 3 days in the office expected. Preference will be given to applicants who reside in or are willing to relocate to the service area of the city of Charlottesville or the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson, and Orange.

To apply: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The application deadline is February 27, 2026.

Submit the following in an email to careers@cacfonline.org. Include “Senior Philanthropic Relationship Manager” in the subject line.

• Résumé
• Cover letter (Please address how your lived experiences and past work history have prepared you for this position—specifically how you will align with the foundation’s racial equity journey which is built upon practices of inclusivity, mutual aid, solidarity, liberation, healing, and power building).

About the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation:

The Community Foundation was established in 1967 with a mission to improve the quality of life in Charlottesville and the surrounding counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson, and Orange. This region of more than 310,000 people includes a variety of rural and urban environments, and is home to a complex, and at times, deeply painful American history. The region’s changing demographics present opportunities for greater inclusion, and the Community Foundation is deeply committed tobeing a community-centered, equity-forward organizationthat ensuresour region is one where everyone can belong, participate, contribute, and thrive. As a tax-exempt, nonprofit public charity, the Community Foundation works withlocal residents, nonprofits, and public and private organizations to facilitate philanthropy through several hundred donor funds and scholarships while making local investments through its own discretionary resources.

Our team believes that candidates who demonstrate and seek to develop the following qualities will find our organization an environment in which they can thrive:

1. Growth Mindset – to be willing and able to grow and change and do things differently. Go beyond what training or experience or upbringing has taught us and be open to having what we think we know challenged. Be humble, curious, and open-minded to explore ideas or opportunities that are new to us.
2. Innovation Orientation/Sense of Possibility – to bring to the work a “how can we” or “how could this be possible” as opposed to “we can’t” mindset. We can be in legal and ethical compliance and also question the way things have always been done and our assumptions about them in service of making change and progress.
3. Authenticity & Vulnerability – to be able to bring yourself and share yourself with the team. While we each can make choices about personal boundaries and parts of our lives and selves that we prefer to keep private, we can be genuine and true to ourselves with each other. This is crucial to building trust.
4. A Spirit of Solidarity & Differentiation – to recognize and value our shared fate and invest in each other’s success. At the same time, we appreciate each person’s uniqueness and do not equate experiences or assume that having similar identities (such as race, gender, or position) makes us the same.
5. Direct Communication – to speak our own truth and listen deeply to each other in order to really negotiate and engage in genuine relationships. We give and receive feedback thoughtfully and respectfully, recognizing that this is critical for individual and collective growth and accountability.
6. Responsibility for Learning – to do the personal work to dismantle internalized ideas about self and others, to see the larger system and our individual locations in it, and work together as effective change agents. 

POSITION SUMMARY & ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

The Senior Philanthropic Relationship Manager (SPRM) provides senior leadership, thought partnership, and advanced advising across their Philanthropic Engagement portfolio. The role proactively stewards a portfolio of complex funds. The SPRM stewards and grows their assigned portfolio through exceptional advising and responsible growth (renewals, new funds, reactivations) and leads origination/qualification for priority prospects. The SPRM ensures that philanthropic resources across the portfolio are stewarded and deployed with excellence, compliance, and measurable community impact. 

This role is deeply nonprofit facing, with regular responsibility for meeting with nonprofit investment partners, building trusted relationships, and serving as a connective bridge between CACF’s strategy, operations, and the lived realities of our community partners.

Portfolio Management:

• Steward a priority portfolio of up to $125M Assets Under Management (AUM) across all fund types (DAFs, SIFs, Agency Funds—Small & Large, Scholarships, and Competitive Grant Programs). This role is specifically focused on Nonprofit Agency Funds and Designated Funds, but experience with all fund types is helpful for redundancy and team support.
• Interact closely with the CACF Finance and Operations team and our OCIO to ensure comprehensive and dynamic support for Agency fundholders.
• Familiarity with non-profit ecosystems, partners and their roles, areas of focus for investment.
• Develop and maintain multi-year roadmaps that align donor intent with community priorities and identify growth opportunities (renewals, expansions, new funds, reactivations).
• Proactively monitor portfolio activity and respond promptly to fundholder inquiries, portal updates, contributions, and distribution requests.
• Hold final recommendation authority within policy for most portfolio actions, escalating only highly sensitive issues to the CEO/COFO. 

Relationship & Ecosystem Management:

• Understand and work in close relationships with the non-profit ecosystem with a deep understanding of the life cycle, business models, and opportunities.
• Manage internal program/platform connecting our individual fundholders and donor community to giving opportunities for local nonprofits and build relationships with non-profit organizations throughout the region to elevate critical needs to team members and their fundholders.
• Organize engagement opportunities and provide problem-solving and feedback to strengthen relationships between agency funds and DAFs, competitive and discretionary grants programs.
• Develop communications materials for regular outreach to fundholders, including quarterly newsletter features, welcome/onboarding presentations for new funds, and important email reminders with relevant resources and Foundation updates.
• Partner with team members, CEO, COFO, and OCIO on reporting and product development.
• Appropriately triage and interpret the needs and appropriate resources to address the opportunity space for non-profit partners, including working closely with our Community Impact Team to connect organizations with our capacity-building offerings.
• Ability to interpret financial data for constituents and liaise between appropriate departments and resources. 

Strategic Growth:

• Lead origination and qualification for priority prospects.
• Own accountability for Agency and Designated Fund portfolios’ AUM growth through renewals, expansions, new funds, and reactivations.
• Craft tailored value propositions and engagement plans.
• Collaborate with the Director of Strategic Growth and other teams to plan fundholder events that elevate relationships and showcase impact. 

Process Improvement & Learning:

• Design and lead relevant giving and learning opportunities for fundholders, nonprofit partners, and CACF staff—including briefings, convenings, curated materials, and internal deep dives— strengthening understanding of the agency fund portfolio, surfacing unique partner needs, and equipping agency fund advisors and boards with the knowledge and resources needed to build capacity and strengthen financial stewardship.
• Define and standardize SOPs, templates, and playbooks — the “CACF Way” — to ensure replicability, scalability, and sustainability.
• Document learning, pull relevant reports, maintain decision logs, and contribute to continuous improvement that reduces cycle time, errors, and effort. 

Database & Data Management/Reporting:

• Efficiency with financial, grants management and CRM tools for use to manage relationships across the portfolio.
• Maintain accurate records of all fundholder and donor interactions.
• Reporting at the leadership/board level – responsible for quarterly reporting on portfolio 

Other Responsibilities:

• Mentor peers through project-based supervision and by sharing reusable tools and examples.
• Represent CACF and fundholders at community events and convenings.
• Champion alignment across departments by surfacing issues, developing options, and convening decision-makers to resolve complex scenarios.
• Participate actively in diversity, equity, and inclusion professional development, team building, and CACF staff events.
• Perform other duties as assigned. 

Requirements

QUALIFICATIONS

Required:

• 5+ years of relevant experience delivering on responsibilities such as portfolio stewardship, grantmaking, relationship management, or cross-functional coordination.
• Strong judgment on compliance and risk.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and relationship-building skills.
• Ability to apply policy with nuance while enabling innovation.
• CACF uses Foundant as our financial database and will provide training. Experience with financial systems is preferred. (Foundant CSuite/GLM/SLM and SharePoint/OneDrive strongly preferred) 

Preferred:

• Experience stewarding portfolios with significant AUM and multiple fund types.
• Working fluency with IRS/OFAC requirements, DAF compliance rules, UPMIFA and SIF oversight, expenditure responsibility, and scholarship regulations.
• Experience coordinating gift acceptance for complex assets (e.g., securities, DTC/ACH/wires, inter-foundation transfers, QCDs, or other non-cash contributions).