Maria Pappas

A philanthropic leader for over 30 years, Maria has expertise in all areas of nonprofit leadership including staff development and retention, board recruitment and activation, fundraising and community engagement. Rebuilding struggling teams is an area where Maria thrives. A servant leader, she is able to establish trust and build collaborative teams to achieve ambitious goals. As Chief Philanthropy Officer at The Tech Interactive, Maria provided strategic leadership to
The Tech’s fundraising initiatives from individuals, corporations and foundations. Maria’s efforts resulted in $170M raised from over 30,000 donors. She was an important thought partner to the CEO and doubled the size of the development team during her tenure.

In addition to her fundraising and management success at The T ech, Maria began her career at the American Heart Association where she organized local boards, established a new fundraising model and brought three new national initiatives to the Silicon Valley division. As Development Director and Executive Director at the AHA, Maria grew the Silicon Valley office to become a leader across California. Maria is currently the board chair for a nonprofit leadership development organization for students across the state of California. She earned her BA in Psychology and Sociology with an emphasis in Business from UCLA and her Masters in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from ASU. She is currently a facilitator/trainer for the Collaborative Commons bringing Radical Collaboration to for profit, nonprofit and government organizations across the US. Maria believes deeply in fostering the next generation of nonprofit leaders.