Mari Ellen Reynolds Loijens

Chief Philanthropic Development and Information Officer

As chief philanthropic development and information officer, Mari Ellen oversees Silicon Valley Community Foundation's development, business services, and marketing and communications departments. Loijens is a seasoned nonprofit professional with nearly two decades of experience. She joined the community foundation in 2004 as director of development for parent foundation, Community Foundation Silicon Valley. Under her leadership, the organization has raised nearly $1 billion and won numerous awards for its marketing and communications work.

Before joining the community foundation, she was director of development at Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, where she raised $11 million annually. Mari Ellen has held senior level fundraising positions at various public benefit corporations in New York. She served as director of major gifts and planned giving at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, meeting with donors across the country to help support their charitable interest in animals. As director of development at White Plains Hospital Center, she helped build a new cancer center and neonatal ward. Her marketing efforts for the neonatal ward were recognized with a Clarion Award.

Mari Ellen began her professional fundraising career as director of development at Saint Michael Academy in New York and first entered the nonprofit world as a research technician in Rockefeller University genetics labs and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center molecular biology labs.

Mari Ellen is a Certified Fund Raising Executive, or CFRE. She was the 2007 president of the board of directors of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Silicon Valley Chapter and served as co-chair for National Philanthropy Day 2004. She is an alumnus of Community Leadership San José, class of 2002.

A graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, Mari Ellen supports her alma mater's fundraising efforts as head class agent for her class. As an active member of the Junior League of San José, she co-chaired the organization’s volunteer recognition luncheon in 2006 and served as 2009-2010 president.

Mari Ellen was born in Okinawa, Japan and grew up on the East Coast.  Her earliest community activities include volunteering as a docent for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. She lives in Sunnyvale with her husband and adopted dog.