Desautels Joins Lower Cape Outreach Council Team

ORLEANS – Six weeks ago, seasoned philanthropy and communications specialist Gerry Desautels assumed the role of director of development at the nonprofit Lower Cape Outreach Council (LCOC) in a period of intensified housing and economic pressure on the Cape.

Through food distribution, financial assistance, and clothing donations, the LCOC aims to aid struggling families and individuals and “encourage long-term self-sufficiency.” Despite its limited infrastructure, Desautels said the LCOC has made an “enormous impact” on Cape society.

“When people work together, amazing things can happen,” he said. “Nobody can move the needle alone, that’s what community does. And that’s what we’re looking to preserve here.”

Desautels is now the seventh staff member on the LCOC team. As director of development, Desautels’ chief responsibilities lie in marketing communications and fundraising, which involves the public promotion of the LCOC and the direction of communications with individual donors.

“With the 40-year history of the organization, Cape Outreach has an amazingly loyal and generous donor base,” Desautels said. “That was another thing that attracted me to this organization. There is such a strong foundation of support.”

Alongside a significant number of long-standing donors, the LCOC also benefits from a support network of around 200 committed volunteers.

“Some volunteers are very long serving and dedicated, and their energy and enthusiasm helps to attract other people,” Desautels said. “Finding a way to make the experience rewarding, safe, and meaningful to the volunteers, that’s how you sustain and grow a volunteer base.”

Desautels’ journey in the philanthropy world began 25 years ago when he left his Boston-based for-profit job in 1999 in search of a more fulfilling occupation.

“I was working in high tech public relations, and the work was not really feeding my soul,” Desautels said. “Now I’m in an organization where I actually help to feed people and nourish them. So that’s very gratifying.”

Between 2016 and 2024, Desautels worked at Outer Cape Health Services (OCHS) as the senior development and communications officer, an experience he said will always be the “highlight” of his career. When COVID-19 rocked the Cape community, Desautels worked alongside his team at OCHS to expand and restore community health centers and facilitate an effective vaccine distribution system.

“I’ll never forget that experience working in healthcare during COVID,” Desautels said. “It actually, ironically, was a privilege, because I felt there was so much impact in connection to the work.”

Desautels believes his extensive experience in the philanthropic sector, as well as his educational background in broadcast journalism, provided him with a skill set that has and will continue to support him as he immerses himself in this new endeavor.

“With my background, I was able to just jump in and create our Summer of Hope campaign, which we are launching now,” Desautel said. “It will feature seven client’s stories over seven weeks, highlighting the needs of the community.”

Spearheaded by Desautels, the Summer of Hope campaign involves the dissemination of stories surrounding the pitfalls and triumphs of seven LCOC clients. He hopes this project will shine a light on the deeper impact that funding the LCOC has on the lives of struggling individuals and families.

“We share the stories in a way that they are anonymous, but they’re real,” Desautels. “They speak to the challenges, but also the successes.”

As Cape living gets increasingly expensive, the promotion of such success stories becomes increasingly important. According to the Boston Globe, no region within Massachusetts has witnessed a more consistent rise in prices than Cape Cod.

Across the Cape, housing prices have risen by more than 60 percent over the past five years. Reports from Data Cape Cod reveal that between 2019 and 2023, the annual median sales price of single-family homes in Barnstable County soared from $433,000 to $730,000. As expenses continue to escalate in 2024, a potential plateau in prices seems unlikely.

The housing crisis, among other Cape-centric economic struggles, has upped the demand for the necessary work of nonprofit organizations like the LCOC.

“The need is only getting greater,” Desautels said. “Last year we saw a 64 percent increase in the number of our food pantry visits. We have to raise more funds as the need increases.”

Desautels said there are plans for expansion. After years of renting, the LCOC recently acquired ownership of its building in Orleans and hopes to optimize its potential, improving the services within the building for the many clients, volunteers, and staff members who work there.

In its beginning, the LCOC consisted of a singular food pantry. Forty years later, the organization now runs nine food pantries and helps to ease the burdens of nearly 5,000 individuals and families.

“We are not the answer to everything,” Desautels said. “But if we can help families and individuals one by one, to help live, work, and stay here, it’s an important component, and it’s also preserving the fabric and the diversity of the people who live here.”