Mary Ontko, M.P.A.

Mary is a nonprofit and association management, fundraising, grant writing and event planning professional with 25 years of nonprofit leadership and association management experience. In addition to her work as a senior search consultant, Mary acts as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for The Moran Company. In this role, she manages company operations and works with each search consultant throughout all stages of their active searches, ensuring adherence to The Moran Company’s processes and best practices.

Prior to this, Mary led three Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) chapters, in Wichita, Topeka, and Kansas City, where she grew membership, enhanced member experience and modernized chapter operations. She has also served as Senior Program Officer at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a national community development intermediary. In addition to her specialty of providing training and technical assistance to community development partners, Mary’s duties at LISC included program development, building partnerships, outcomes tracking, evaluation and analysis, financial management and reporting, and raising charitable resources for the program.

Mary joined LISC after 8 years at El Centro, Inc., a large community development organization serving Kansas City. As Vice President of Organizational Development, she oversaw resource development, communications, organizational development, human resources, policy, strategic planning and information technology efforts.  While at El Centro, Mary’s efforts helped more than double the organization’s budget and programmatic scope. She was instrumental in executing the organization’s expansion plans, leading a successful multi-year capital campaign, spearheading a strategic planning and subsequent reorganization process, creating a formal human resources and evaluation role, and significantly growing the agency’s donor base. Mary got her start in the nonprofit sector as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer in Birmingham, AL.

Mary has an MPA from the University of Kansas and a BA in International Relations and Urban Studies/Public Policy from Boston University. She became a Certified Fundraising Executive, a fundraising designation bestowed by CFRE International, in 2003 and maintained the credential for nearly 20 years. Mary completed the Development Training Institute’s Bank of America Leadership Academy, a premier non-profit community development national leadership program, in 2001.  Mary serves, or has served on, the Board of Directors of the Lumberyard Arts Center, the Friends of the Baldwin City Public Library, Wonderscope Children’s Museum of Kansas City, the Civic Leadership Training Council, Kaw Valley Arts & Humanities, and the Association of Fundraising Professionals Mid-America Chapter.