Are you invested in the health of the Chesapeake Bay region?
The Chesapeake Bay Trust shares a bold vision for a restored and protected Chesapeake Bay watershed and other natural resources in our area—from the Coastal Bays to the Chesapeake to the Youghiogheny River. We uniquely empower local community-based groups on the ground with the resources they need to take on a meaningful and measurable role in restoring these systems. Healthy natural resources benefit everyone. We know that everyone can make an impact and hundreds of thousands of individuals have come together to improve forests, streams, rivers, bays, wildlife, and more in their own communities.
The Trust empowers these groups by providing grants and technical assistance. Every year, about 400 groups are awarded project money or provided other assistance to accomplish environmental education, community outreach, and local watershed restoration projects. We currently average $20-30 million in grant funding annually. Since our inception in 1985 by the Maryland General Assembly, the Trust has awarded more than $160 million in grants and engaged hundreds of thousands of resident stewards in projects that have a measurable impact.
The Trust is supported by the sale of the Chesapeake vehicle license plate (affectionately known as “the bay plate”); donations to the Chesapeake Bay and Endangered Species Fund on the Maryland State income tax form; donations from Maryland’s online boating, fishing, and hunting license system; contributions from individuals and corporations; and partnerships with private foundations and federal, state, and local governments. The Trust has received the highest rating from Charity Navigator for over two decades: on average 90 percent of the Trust’s expenditures are directed to its restoration and education programs.
Current Open Positions
Development, Marketing & Communications Intern
The Chesapeake Bay Trust (the Bay Trust) seeks an energetic Development, Marketing, and Communications Intern to play a critical role in accomplishing the Bay Trust’s evolving fundraising, marketing, media, and branding goals.
The Chesapeake Bay Trust seeks to engage and empower a diversity of groups to take actions that enrich the natural resources and local communities of the Chesapeake Bay region. The Bay Trust is a nonprofit grant-making organization established by the Maryland state government in 1985. The Bay Trust currently makes 400+ grants and other awards per year ranging from $100 to ~$400,000 for projects in the K-12 environmental education, on-the-ground restoration, science, capacity building, and community engagement realms. In the past 15 years, the Bay Trust has increased its grant-making four-fold through various revenues streams under the purview of four Bay Trust departments, with annual awards of approximately $20-30 million.
As our Development, Marketing, and Communications (DMC) Intern, you will gain hands-on experience with skills critical to development, marketing, and communications within the growing environmental space. Creative tasks in digital content creation and storytelling are joined by hard skillsets such as donor correspondence and data entry, in addition to forward-facing opportunities through educational tabling and special events. The role is ideal for those considering a future career in nonprofit and/or environmental sector fundraising, communications, marketing, or program management.
This is a hybrid remote/onsite internship requiring at least 50% in-person/on-site work (the rest can be remote), some additional travel, and some evening and weekend hours. The Chesapeake Bay Trust office is located in Annapolis, Maryland, with parking offered at no cost. The position reports to the Vice President for Communications & Advancement with associations to three additional members of the Development, Marketing, and Communications team.
https://cbaytrust.bamboohr.com/careers/69?source=aWQ9Mjg%3D
The position will remain open until filled. Please submit your resume and cover letter. In your cover letter, please address your ability, based on your skills and experience, to accomplish the specific duties of the position as outlined above. Your cover letter is the most important piece of your application. In your cover letter, please address your ability to accomplish the duties of the position as listed above. Please do not simply list your previous experience. Your cover letter should describe what makes you a strong match specifically for this position, and why this position is a match for you.
The Chesapeake Bay Trust provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, national origin, age, or disability in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. Applicants must have a residential address in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, or Washington, D.C and must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. The Bay Trust does not participate in programs that require sponsorship for work visas.
Program Manager- Restoration
The Chesapeake Bay Trust (the Trust), a non-profit grantmaking organization, seeks a Program Manager on the Restoration Team for our Annapolis, MD, location. The person in this position will lead a team of three to five staff that implement grant programs supporting stormwater retrofits, climate resiliency, native plants and habitat enhancement, research, and clean water goals for communities in the Chesapeake Bay, Coastal Bays, and Youghiogheny watersheds. The person in this role reports to the Vice President of Programs for Restoration and will work closely with the other Program Manager(s) on the Restoration Team.
The person in this role must be both a “doer” and a “thinker” and perform a wide variety of tasks both strategic and tactical. This is a hybrid position with an anticipated minimum of two days per week in the office, and the others may be remote. This person will be a key member of a high-energy, collaborative team of 40+ professionals who work diligently to advance the Trust’s mission and daily consider the Trust’s core values of learning, science and innovation, grantee focus, diversity and inclusion, fiscal responsibility, and transparency accountability. This is a full-time, salaried position (40 hours per week).
The full Restoration team manages award programs and partnerships that fund stormwater best management practice (BMP) planning, design, and implementation; research on certain BMPs where there are gaps in knowledge; and small-scale individual landowner rebate programs. This Program Manager position will support his/her/their sub-department as they manage funding from ~20 sources to make new awards to community-based grantees, local governments, and contractors; manage existing awards; and report to partners. The Program Manager will take a lead on developing new partnerships and managing existing partnerships. The position will require site visits a few times a month to proposed and completed project sites.
Established in 1985, the Chesapeake Bay Trust uses grant-making as a method to promote community-based participation in the restoration and protection of the natural resources of Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay region. In the past fifteen years, the Trust has doubled its grant-making five times through new revenue from a wide range of partners, with current annual grant-making of approximately $25 million. The Trust currently allocates these funds through 350 to 400 awards per year to entities who apply through open, competitive calls for proposals as well as programs such as the Chesapeake Conservation and Climate Corps.
Full Position Description and Link to Apply
The position will remain open until filled, but for best consideration apply by September 15, 2025. Please submit your resume and cover letter. Your cover letter is the most important piece of your application. In your cover letter, please address your ability, based on your skills and experience, to accomplish the specific duties of the position as outlined earlier. Please do not simply list your previous experience. Your cover letter should describe what makes you a strong candidate specifically for this position, and why this position is a match for you.
The Trust provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or disability in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis and have or are able to relocate to an address in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, or Washington, D.C. The Trust does not participate in programs that require sponsorship for work visas.
Chesapeake Bay Trust Values
