Margaretta Andrews Retiring From Community Foundation After 15 Years

Margaretta Andrews, who has led the Community Foundation for Nantucket since 2008, announced this week that she will be retiring before the end of the year. 

Under Andrews' leadership, the Community Foundation has grown to manage approximately $23 million in charitable assets in more than 100 funds and has become a dynamic philanthropic force on the island. Andrews was the organization's first and only executive director. 

“It has been an honor and a privilege to help the Community Foundation grow from its infancy to the vital community resource it is today," Andrews said. "It is hard to believe it’s been 15 years, and I feel very confident that the Foundation is well positioned to move onto the next chapter.”

Among the funds Andrews and the Community Foundation team established during her tenure was the Nantucket Fund, an endowed fund with grant-making directed by the Foundation’s board. It serves as a permanent, flexible resource to respond to the changing needs of the community. 

With Andrews at the helm of the Foundation, more than $10 million in grants to local nonprofits have been awarded, helping to fund a wide range of programs and initiatives that benefit the island. 

“Everyone involved with the Community Foundation – the  board, the staff, the nonprofits we interact with, our donors, and other funders here and elsewhere in Massachusetts will miss her level-headed leadership, compassion and experienced perspective,” said Melissa Philbrick, the Foundation's board president. "We look forward to a smooth transition to a new executive director who will continue to build on the organization that she has created and lead the Foundation in the future.”

Philbrick said the Foundation intends to cast a wide net for the next executive director, and acknowledged the challenges of recruiting top candidates given the island's housing crisis and real estate market. The Foundation does not own any staff housing, she said. 

"Everyone on nantucket who tries to recruit recognizes that housing is barrier," Philbrick said. "It’s a challenge. We’re casting the net as wide as we can, and we have a series of networks of other community foundations in Massachusetts and across the country. We obviously are advertising it locally and hoping to spread the word."

Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Andrews has generational ties to Nantucket going back to the 1930s. After graduating from St. Lawrence University, she moved to Nantucket year-round in 1979, and worked for the Nantucket Conservation Foundation and then the Nantucket Cottage Hospital. She married Bill Andrews in 1988 and began volunteering in the early 1990s. 

She has served on the boards of the Children’s House Montessori School, Friends of Nantucket Public Schools, Nantucket Student Lacrosse, both the Cyrus Peirce and Nantucket High School Councils, and the Nantucket Cottage Hospital where she served as chairman of the Board of Trustees from 2001-2008 and is currently an honorary trustee. She has two grown daughters and two grandchildren.

Those interested in applying for the Foundation's executive director position should contact search@cfnan.org.