Mary Karen formed PPS with the vision of a professional team that would work together to fill gaps in family philanthropic staffing and reduce the isolation of the single-staff office. The PPS team format was designed to share learnings, impactful ideas, and best practices in support of small and medium sized foundations. Over the past eighteen years, through this shared and collaborative staff model, PPS has provided ongoing and short-term support to dozens of foundations, staffed hundreds of board meetings, overseen thousands of impactful grants, and stewarded investment committees that oversee millions of well-invested dollars.
Mary Karen has worked in the nonprofit field for many years and has provided leadership and consultant services to philanthropic organizations locally, nationally, and internationally. As President, Mary Karen leads the PPS team in providing high-quality, innovative services. She currently serves as lead staff to some of PPS’s foundation clients and provides philanthropic advice to the other foundations working with PPS. Mary Karen has also developed training programs for the Minnesota Council on Foundations and Exponent Philanthropy. She was part of the leadership team that created the pioneering mission investment program, Calvert Community Investments; now a $500 million institution.
Mary Karen graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in History and Economics and served in the Peace Corps in Tunisia. As a volunteer, Mary Karen co-founded and directed a volunteer-based education project in Ecuador and helped form a dual-immersion language program at her children’s elementary school.
